A New Light
by IWantColouredRain
Summary: It is a Dark time for the galaxy. But the Rebel Alliance has struck a major victory against the Empire. Rebels managed to steal the plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the Death Star, an armoured space station with enough power to destroy a planet. Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, the Rebels flee with the plans that can save the galaxy. Gender/name swapped twins
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer/AN: I don't own Star Wars. What I do own is hatred for Anakin/Vader, and the ideas for (A) Gender and name-swapped Skywalker twins, (B) Luke raised by Sola and (C) Luke becoming a Jedi/involved with the Rebellion earlier. Then I decided to combine all these things into one with an OT rewrite. The twins will be OOC probably, due to different genders, and Vader will not be forgiven for multiple counts of murder and genocide, before and after going Dark Side. Enjoy, and R &R please! But no flames, though criticism is fine. Just no insults or reviews dedicated to insulting my work. Thanks! I will have both canon and EU elements in this.**

 **Prologue** _  
_

 _The general belief of all societies is that there is either free will or a set destiny. The Jedi preached that 'all is as the Force wills'. And that is true. Whatever you decided to call it, the Force, Shiraya, the Little Gods. All were different names for the same omniscient being._

 _The Force wove a tapestry of fate, and certain events inevitably happen no matter what decisions are made by the citizens of the galaxy._

 _But the Force also granted Its' children the ability to choose how to get there. And the Force was split into two opposing parts. What the Light Side willed was the opposite of what the Dark Side willed and vice versa._

 _So while in one galaxy, all events happened as we know it, in another, one small tweak cause a cascade of changes in the war of the Light and the Dark Sides. And in this reality, the female Skywalker becomes a Jedi, not the male._

* * *

 _ **Polis Massa, 19 ABY**_

"Ahh!" Padmé cried, her small body writhing on the operation table. "Ahh! Oh Force! Ani, Ani, why?" she sobbed in anguish, the pain in her heart far outweighing the pain from the injuries her husband had given her on Mustafar.

Obi-Wan stood beside her, muttering comforting words mechanically as he clutched her hand. He could barely bring himself to realize where he was, let alone what was happening.

He kept going over the events of the past thirteen years, identifying every little mistake he had made and wondering if that was the cause of Anakin's turn to the Dark Side and the subsequent fall of the Jedi Order. Zonoma Sekot, why hadn't he trained him better after Anakin's first use of the Dark Side?

Or perhaps if he hadn't ignored the signs of Anakin's obsession (and it was an obsession, there was a line between love and obsession and the slave boy-turned-Jedi had never learned to how to tell the difference.) he could've done something to put a stop to his apprentice's Turn.

The wails of a baby suddenly joining the world pierced the fog in his mind, and he released Padmé's hand to hurry over and gently take the child from the med-droid and bring it to the mother, who was straining her head weakly to see her child.

"It's a girl!" he announced, hiding his shock at the baby's bright Force-presence, as if she were a miniature sun, and her bright blue eyes. Eyes he hadn't seen since he left for Utapau.

Obi-Wan knew from the Creche that human children were generally born with blue eyes that changed to their natural colour over several months, but the ones on Padmé's daughter were the exact same shade as Anakin's eyes had once been. He knew instinctively that they would stay that way.

"Oh, Leia," Padmé wept, drawing his attention back to her. "Oh, my sweet little girl." she reached out her hand to stroke the child's cheek and Leia quickly grabbed her mother's finger, gripping it tightly, her cries having eased off. She gurgled happily, but Padmé was forced to pull away in order to focus as another contraction hit her. Obi-Wan laid Leia down beside her head, praying to the Force to have mercy and not let Padmé's twins become orphans moments after their birth.

Another cry soon split the air, and Obi-Wan quickly accepted the second child and placed him in his mother's arms along with his elder sister. Padmé started to sob again in a mixture of joy and heartbreak.

"It's a boy," he announced the obvious. Padmé smiled through her tears.

"Luke, oh my beautiful boy." she kept her gaze fixed on her twins as she spoke, voice weakening with each word. "Ani thought, a girl. But I knew, a son." she finally turned to look at him. "He killed, tribe who killed his mother, right after," she admitted, shattering the fragments of Obi-Wan's heart as she did so.

"Everyone, not just the raiders. The women and children, as well. And attacked, my ex-boyfriend out of, jealousy. But I, ignored it. I'm so, sorry!" she gasped.

"Padmé," he began, wanting to reassure her, but she ploughed ahead, determined to say her piece before becoming one with the Force.

"If I, had stuck to my convictions, this wouldn't, have happened," she struggled to speak, her voice weakening even more. "But still, I must, ask one last. Favour of you!"

"Anything," he agreed hoarsely. She swallowed and smiled at him tiredly, eyes fluttering.

"Protect, my babies and, my family," she requested. "And make sure, they know. I love them all. So much."

"I will," he vowed. "I swear I will."

"Thank you," she whispered. "I love you, also. My friend. Don't blame. Yourself." Before he could reply, she turned back to the babies and whispered to them, somehow finding the strength to kiss each of their cheeks gently. "I love you, my darling babies."

With those words, Padmé Amidala Naberrie, Senator and former two-terms Queen of Naboo, died. Her body slackened and her eyes went wide and blank as her babies started screaming at the abrupt loss of their maternal Force-bond, one of the two bonds they would have had since conception, the other to each other.

Obi-Wan wanted to crumble to his knees and howl in grief at yet another friend's loss, but refrained. Instead, he reached out and picked up the two sobbing children, reaching out with the Force to try and soothe them. No doubt they were struggling, given the Force was full of echoes of the Jedi's destruction, and now losing their mother's comforting and familiar presence.

He carefully shielded them both, adding a barrier between their delicate senses and the grief and betrayal in the Force, as well as hiding them from Palpatine. If the Sith had sensed the children, he would believe the children had died seconds after their mother.

Cradling the babies with hands experienced in the Creche, Obi-Wan exited the surgery room, exhaustion and pain enfolding him like a heavy cloak.

He met Yoda and Bail in the hall outside. The Jedi Grandmaster seemed to have aged decades in the past few hours. His failure to defeat Sidious was obviously weighing heavily on him, and his small shoulders sagged as he took in the twins and Obi-Wan's expression.

"A great loss, Senator Amidala's death is to us," he sighed tiredly. "Deserved better, she did. Great woman she was."

"Yes," Bail agreed, grief lurking in his brown eyes as well. "I can take one of the children," he offered Obi-Wan.

The Jedi Master nodded silently. As Leia was clutching his robes with as firm a grasp as a new born infant could, he handed the still-crying Luke to the Senator of Alderaan. The baby finally started to calm down as Bail bounced him gently in his arms while they made their way to a nearby conference room to decide what to do with the children.

"Separated they must be," Yoda declared grimly. "Strong in the Force they are. If stay together they do, found they will be."

"I agree," Obi-Wan grimaced, shifting his grip on Leia. None of them were happy with the decision, though they knew it was necessary. Bail disliked the thought of separating the twins so soon after they lost their mother, while the Jedi had grown up being taught to revere the strong bonds between Force-sensitive twins (or triplets or so on, so forth.)

They shared everything with each other, often being more like one person in two bodies instead of two separate people. One would be better at something than the other, whilst the other out-shone their sibling in another area. Together they completed each other. At the same time, if one fell, the other often did so as well, unless they had the strength to resist.

Two halves of a whole. It went against the Jedi's instincts to separate the bond, but it was that same bond that threatened the children.

"I can take one of them," Bail offered, interrupting the grim silence. "My wife and I have long wanted a child, but have always failed in our attempts and Padmé was a dear friend. It would be an honour to raise one of her children in her stead. And we have been planning to adopt a war-orphan is not a secret. My position, along with faking some backdated documents would remove any suspicion for the timing."

"Greatly appreciated that would be, Senator," Yoda agreed, inclining his head. "But take which child should you? Obi-Wan?"

"Luke," Obi-Wan said after a second of hesitant thought. "Padmé said Anakin thought it was a boy, so we should try and keep Leia more hidden. And Leia is stronger in the Force as well."

"Agree with you, I do," Yoda nodded. "To Alderaan, young Luke will go. And Leia?" there was silence for a moment as they all considered.

"To Tatooine perhaps?" Yoda suggested doubtfully. "Family, I believe young Skywalker had there, did he not?"

"No," Bail objected before Obi-Wan could answer. He explained his protest quickly. "It's too obvious. As you said Obi-Wan, Anak-excuse me, Vader knew of a daughter and may have discussed her with the Chan-the Emperor.

If a child of her age and features shows up with his family, it will be easy to link her to Padmé and Vader. And the Emperor may decide to eliminate any remaining pieces of Anakin Skywalker's life. In which case, he would most certainly go to Tatooine to kill his family."

"I agree with Bail," Obi-Wan sighed. "Anakin once swore never to step foot on Tatooine again, but with everything that's happened, I can't be assured that they wouldn't be attacked. I think going to Tatooine would only endanger the family. Besides that, I wouldn't have a clue how to find any of them. I don't their names, or even their species or if they were freedmen or slaves."

"Very well," Yoda conceded. "But, remains the question does: what do we with young Leia, hmm?" He looked around patiently for a suggestion.

"Padmé's sister is just after going into confinement last week," Bail announced abruptly, eyes widening in triumph as he snapped his fingers in realization. "It's Nabooian tradition not to learn anything, name, gender, whether it's one child or more, before the birth. And they wait for another two or maybe three weeks after the birth to announce to anyone outside the immediate family what they had. Padmé will have mentioned it to Vader I'm sure. And Palpatine is from Naboo so he knows the tradition too.

We can give Leia to Sola and her husband to pass off as their own child's twin. There will be witnesses to her pregnancy and the birth, and the droids' memories can be altered to fit. And Leia's genes and features will add legitimacy to the claim of her being their daughter. I can see Padmé in her already."

Yoda nodded, giving the closest approximation to a smile that he could muster under the circumstances. "Excellent," he murmured. "To Alderaan, Luke will go. And to Naboo, Leia will go."

Bail rose, still holding his new son and headed for the door. "I'll go and start making arrangements," he said, pausing at the door. "And you, Masters? What will you do?"

"To Dagobah I will go," Yoda informed them. "There, delve I will into old Jedi secrets. Always more to learn there is."

"I will go and try to find any other survivors," Obi-Wan decided after a moment of half-meditation. "And make to preparations. The galaxy won't tolerate the Empire for long. Not once they understand the truth of it. And I want to know why our men," he faltered, hurt panging in his chest yet again as he remembered how Cody and the rest of the 212th, his loyal men and friends for more than three years, had turned on him without a thought.

"I want to understand how this happened," he finished lamely. "But first, I will escort Leia to her family."

"May the Force be with you both," Bail said with a nod before he quietly left, and Yoda turned to the other remaining Master. "Here come you, Young Obi-Wan," he ordered. "More I must teach you, before take young Leia to her family you do."

* * *

 _ **Varykino, Lake District, Naboo**_

The family gasped in shock at the breach of etiquette when the bedroom door suddenly opened. Why would anyone breach their privacy when Sola was confined? Even the servants were sent away until she was out of her seclusion. And the girls were staying with Sabé, who was Jobal's niece as well as Padmé's former duplicate.

Darred and Ruwee stood and placed themselves protectively between the others and the cloaked form in the doorway.

"I apologize," the man said, lifting a hand in a calming gesture, though his other stayed down. "But I had to come here in utmost secrecy. Forgive me." He pulled down his hood, and the four Naberries let out another round of gasps at the sight of General Kenobi.

"General!" Jobal cried. "Thank Shiraya! We thought you'd been killed." After all the times Obi-Wan Kenobi had saved her daughter, Jobal was utterly certain he was a saint, and she would fight to defend his honour. She'd been terrified for Naboo's hero when the news of the Jedi's slaughter had been announced. All the Naberries agreed it was ludicrous to believe the galaxy's protectors had been plotting a coup, and they were horrified by their deaths.

"I nearly was," he smiled wearily, but it quickly disappeared and he regained his grim expression. "I have some grave news for you."

"No!" Jobal gasped, realizing instantly what he was going to stay. She knew her daughter, and Padmé would never agree to support, or stay silent about, the genocide of the Jedi. _"No_!"

Ruwee shook his head in silent denial and Sola let out a wail of grief, Darred wrapping an arm around her as Obi-Wan quietly explained that Padmé had refused to swear her loyalty to the new regime when the Emperor's emissary, Darth Vader, had come asking for it.

"He attacked her, and I intervened too late," he explained, guilt and self-recrimination coating his words. "I incapacitated him, and rushed her to a nearby medical centre, but the damage was too extensive. She died moments after giving birth."

"Wha, what?" Sola gasped out. A flicker of hope lit her dark eyes. "Her baby, is it-?"

Obi-Wan moved forward, revealing the sleeping form of a child wrapped in a white blanket as he did so. Carefully, as if he held the rarest treasure in the galaxy in his arms, he passed the baby to Sola. She pulled her sister's child close to her chest, a faint smile appearing on her face. Jobal let out a sob of relief.

"I brought Leia, as Padmé named her, to you," he told them softly. "But I must ask that you claim she is your daughter, not your niece."

"Why?" Darred asked sharply.

"Leia is Force-sensitive," Obi-Wan revealed. "And the Empire ordered every child in the Temple to be killed, right down to the infants in their cots." A haunted look crossed his face. "I have no doubt that if the truth of Leia's parentage and sensitivity is revealed, she will suffer the same fate."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Ruwee vowed defiantly, his wife nodding firmly beside him. Looking at them, Obi-Wan knew where Padmé had gotten her strong character from.

Sola and Darred had been exchanging silent looks. Despite his obvious reluctance, Darred sighed and gave in to his wife's silent request.

"Our daughter was stillborn three days ago," he told Obi-Wan. The Jedi winced and made to speak but was cut off by Darred's continuation. "Take her b, body, and bury her as Padmé's child. No one," he inhaled deeply. "No one will ever know the difference. We'll alter the droids' memories. Bury her as Melé Amidala Naberrie. She's in the room across."

Obi-Wan hesitated but nodded. He bowed and turned to leave, pausing at the door to lay a small comm unit on the dresser. "If ever you are in need of my assistance, use this to contact me," he instructed them. "I will do all I can to help you."

"Thank you, Master Kenobi," Jobal answered dully.

"And thank you," Ruwee added. "For being such a good friend to my daughter. She trusted you more than any other."

"She was my dearest friend," he admitted, before pulling his hood back up and exiting the room, leaving the family to grieve in peace for their dual losses.


	2. The Capture of the Tantive IV

**This chapter is almost entirely the copy of 'A New Hope' novelization with pronoun changes and such. Several chapters will be like that, but most** _ **will**_ **be different. I just have to rewrite things like everyone else who's done a New Hope AU and it's easier for me to use the novel for help. Thank you, R &R please.**

 **Chapter One**

**The Capture of Tantive IV**

 _A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away..._

 _It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking at an Imperial base on Scarif, have won their first major victory against the evil GalacticEmpire._

 _During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to theEmpire's ultimate weapon, the Death Star, an armoured space stationwith enough power to destroy an entire planet._

 _Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Prince Luke Organa of Alderaan races homeaboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save herpeople and restore freedom to the galaxy..._

* * *

Bursts of laserfire streaked after the Alderaanian ship _Tantive IV,_ which was racing desperately for the planet Tatooine.

The ship was being chased by the _Devastator_ , an immense Imperial Star Destroyer that was about five times the size of the small _Tantive_ and was firing nearly all its turbolasers at the smaller ship.

Both vessels had just entered Tatooine's orbit when the _Devastator's_ lasers managed to score a direct hit on the _Tantive IV's_ primary sensor array. The blow caused the consular ship's array to explode, which then caused another explosion. That in turn damaged the power generator system and triggered a chain reaction throughout the ship. With no starboard shield and no power to its engines, the _Tantive IV_ was effectively crippled.

Inside the battered _Tantive IV,_ the crew raced to extinguish fires as more blasts rocked the ship. Struggling to remain steady on their feet, Rebel crewmen and troops ran through a narrow white-walled passageway, taking little notice of the two robots that stumbled along with them. The droids were C-3PO, a gold-plated protocol droid, and his counterpart R2-D2, an old but very intelligent, almost sentient, astromech.

"Did you hear that?" C-3PO exclaimed to R2-D2 as the _Tantive IV's_ engines powered down. "They've shut down the main reactor. We'll be destroyed for sure. This is madness!"

More Rebel troops ran into the main corridor. The two droids stepped aside into a shallow alcove to avoid being trampled. The Rebels took up defensive positions and aimed their weapons at a sealed hatch at the end of the corridor.

"We're doomed!" C-3PO wailed, waving his gold-plated arms in despair. R2-D2 replied with a series of beeps and whistles.

"There'll be no escape for the prince this time," C-3PO predicted grimly, just loud enough for R2-D2 to hear.

Mere minutes before the Star Destroyer attacked, the _Tantive IV's_ commanding officer, Captain Antilles, had issued command instructions to the droids, ordering them to restrict and protect all references to Senator Luke Organa's identity and presence onboard the _Tantive IV._ The corridor was suddenly filled with the echoing sounds of metallic latches, clanking and moving around the ship's outer hull.

"What's that?" 3PO asked nervously when he heard the noise.

R2-D2 beeped nervously. The astromech suspected that the Star Destroyer had used a tractor beam to draw the _Tantive IV_ into the _Destroyer's_ main hangar, and the clanking sounds were produced by a magnetic paralyzing pincer lock as it secured the captured ship.

Indeed, that was exactly what had happened: The _Tantive IV_ was now nestled in the Star Destroyer's underside hangar. Although the hangar remained exposed to space, the _Tantive IV_ was trapped like a small fish in a sando aqua monster's belly.

Inside the _Tantive IV's_ corridor, the droids braced themselves against the alcove wall as the Rebel troops kept their eyes on the sealed hatch. Suddenly, sparks blazed at the hatch's frame as it was cut from the other side. Then the hatch exploded. Before the smoke cleared, a white-armoured Imperial stormtrooper stepped through the shattered hatch and fired his blaster rifle at the Rebels.

The stormtrooper was immediately cut down by a hail of return fire from the Rebels, but another stormtrooper appeared from behind him, firing as he stepped over his fallen predecessor. The second stormtrooper also fell to the Rebels, but there were more where he came from, and they kept on coming.

They flooded through the doors, a never-ending stream of Imperial soldiers in identical white armour with robotic helmets, firing furiously at the out-numbered Rebels as they continued to pour into the main corridor.

From their alcove, the droids watched helplessly as several Rebel soldiers were shot down. The Rebels fought back, and the corridor was filled with deadly, crisscrossing projectiles. When a laserbolt slammed into the wall near the droids, R2 responded with a loud electronic shriek, then began rolling away on his wheels.

Not wanting to be left behind, C-3PO stepped after his companion. Laserbolts whizzed past their forms as the droids crossed the narrow corridor to a hatch that faced the alcove. Incredibly, neither droid was hit during their quick but harrowing exit. Overwhelmed by the stormtroopers, the surviving Rebels retreated hastily to other parts of the _Tantive IV._

A squad of stormtroopers secured the corridor, then instinctively moved away from the hatch as a tall, caped figure entered.

He was clad entirely in black, giving him the appearance of a menacing shadow amidst the white-armoured stormtroopers in the white-walled passageway. His head was concealed by a helmet with a fierce-looking faceplate, distinguished by two recessed black oval visual sensors positioned above a triangular respirator. A life-support system control panel was affixed to his chest plate, and he carried with him the sound of his mechanical, laboured breathing. Everything in his outward appearance suggested that the black-armoured suit only barely contained the evil lurking within. He was Darth Vader, the Sith Lord.

Darth Vader ignored the two dead stormtroopers near the exploded hatch and surveyed the fallen Rebels on the corridor floor with indifference. He felt neither pity nor remorse for the lives that had been extinguished. In Vader's eyes, these men brought this upon themselves. They had sealed their fate the day they chose to oppose the Empire instead of bowing to its' might and strength. Stepping over the corpses, Vader proceeded into the _Tantive IV._

* * *

A few halls away, R2-D2 stood in a dimly illuminated sub-hallway that linked the _Tantive IV's_ port airlock to the escape pod access tunnel. He had lost sight of C-3PO almost immediately after they'd made their hasty exit from the main corridor, and he assumed that the golden droid had either gotten lost or found a good hiding place. The only reason R2-D2 had not yet attempted to find his friend was because he was busy making a holographic recording of Prince Luke.

R2-D2 had run into the young man as he hid in the sub-hallway. He had fair skin, dark brown hair, and wore a loose-fitting white Alderaanian-styled travel suit and brown boots. He sounded distressed as he spoke, which was understandable given the circumstances.

The droid was still recording when Luke glanced at a hatch behind him, then turned back to bend and insert a data card into the slot beneath R2-D2's radar eye. The droid stopped recording.

"Artoo, where are you?" C-3PO called worriedly from nearby.

While Luke crept off to hide in a nearby corner, R2-D2 extended his retractable third leg to the floor and moved in the direction of C-3PO's voice.

"At last!" C-3PO said when he saw Artoo. "Where have you been? They're heading in this direction. What are we going to do? We'll be sent to the spice mines of Kessel or smashed into who knows what!"

R2 rolled away from C-3PO, heading for the escape pod access tunnel.

"Wait a minute," C-3PO said. "Where are you going?"

Prince Luke peeked out from his hiding place and watched the droids exit. " _Unless that R2 unit manages to deliver my message and the plans to the General,"_ he thought grimly. _"All hope will be lost for the galaxy!"_

* * *

As stormtroopers and captured Rebel troops marched by, Vader stood in the consular ship's operations forum and wrapped his black-gloved, prosthetic fingers around the neck of the ship's commanding officer, Captain Antilles. Vader was about to proceed with his interrogation when an Imperial officer rushed up and announced, "The Death Star plans are not in the main computer."

Vader turned his visor to gaze at Captain Antilles. "Where are those transmissions you intercepted from the Rebels on Scarif?" the Sith Lord asked as he lifted Antilles off the floor. "What have you done with those plans?"

"We intercepted no transmissions," Antilles gasped. "We have no contact with the Rebellion. Aaah…this is a consular ship. We're on a diplomatic mission."

"If this is a consular ship…then where is the ambassador?" Vader asked, tightening his grip.

When no answer came from Antilles, Vader decided the interrogation was over. There was a horrid snapping sound from Antilles' neck, then his body went limp. Vader tossed the dead soldier against the wall, then turned to a stormtrooper. "Commander," Vader ordered, "tear this ship apart until you've found those plans and bring me the passengers. I want them alive!"

The stormtroopers marched off to search the ship. Soon, a squad arrived at the adumbral port sub-hallway and moved quietly down its' length. It didn't take long for a stormtrooper to spot Prince Luke's white clothes against the dark-walled chamber.

"There's one!" the stormtrooper shouted as he raised his blaster rifle. "Set for stun!"

Luke stepped out from his hiding place, raised his laser pistol, and fired at the nearest stormtrooper. His blaster was _not_ set on stun, and the fired projectile punched through his target's armour, dropping him instantly. Luke turned to run, despite knowing that the attempt was futile on the ship, but another stormtrooper fired a paralyzing ray at his back. The prince was hit in the shoulder blade and went sprawling to the floor.

The stormtrooper squad stepped over to inspect his inert body carefully. "He'll be all right," the squad's leader announced as he straightened after a moment of examination. "Inform Lord Vader we have a prisoner."

* * *

The sound of blasterfire from the sub-hallway reached C-3PO as he followed R2-D2 through the adjoining escape pod access tunnel. C-3PO had thought R2-D2 was heading for the next chamber, so he was surprised when he saw the astromech instead stop, turn, and open the hatch to an escape pod.

"Hey, you're not permitted in there," C-3PO exclaimed. "It's restricted. You'll be deactivated for sure."

R2-D2 ignored as he moved into the pod and then he beeped back at the golden droid.

"Don't you call me a mindless philosopher, you overweight glob of grease!" C-3PO retorted indignantly.

"Now come out before somebody sees you." R2-D2 remained in the pod and whistled at C-3PO again, sounding insistent.

"Secret mission?" C-3PO asked, baffled. "What plans? What are you talking about? I'm not getting in there!" Yet another explosion rocked the ship, violently rattling C-3PO's metal joints. Without any further hesitation, the golden droid stumbled through the open hatch and into the pod. "I'm going to regret this," he declared mournfully.

The hatch snapped shut behind the droids. Then there was a muffled explosion as the pod's latches blew away and the pod ejected from the _Tantive IV._ The pod's rocket engines propelled it out of the Star Destroyer's open hangar and into space.

* * *

The ejected pod did not go unnoticed by the Imperials. On board the _Devastator,_ the chief pilot saw the pod's image streak across his main viewscreen.

"There goes another one," the chief pilot pointed out.

"Hold your fire," the captain ordered after checking his sensors. "There's no life-forms. It must have just short-circuited."

* * *

The escape pod continued to plummet away from the Star Destroyer. Inside the pod, C-3PO peered through the small circular window that was the vessel's single viewport. Gazing back at the rapidly receding view of the _Tantive IV_ within the Star Destroyer's main hangar, commenting as he did so. "That's funny, the damage doesn't look as bad from out here."

R2-D2 beeped an assuring response.

"Are you sure this thing is safe?" C-3PO asked him doubtfully, unconvinced by his counterpart's reassurances. Soon enough, even the enormous Star Destroyer was just a distant speck from the droids' perspective. And the escape pod continued to fall, all the way to the harsh surface of the planet below. Within it was all the hopes of the people of the galaxy.


	3. The Droids

**The AUness starts coming through in this chapter. I don't own Star Wars in any way shape or form.**

 **Chapter Two**

**The Droids**

After the stormtroopers revived Prince Luke, they placed binders on his wrists and escorted him through the _Tantive IV._ Luke could not help but notice that the white-walled corridors were now scorched and the air was heavy with the scent of blaster fumes. He swallowed down the wave of grief he felt for his loyal soldiers.

He couldn't afford to grieve right now, he had a part to play. The Empire could _not_ be allowed to learn what he had done with the plans for the Death Star. Nor could he let them discover the location of the Rebel bases that he knew of.

Darth Vader and a black-uniformed Imperial officer stepped out through a hatch and entered the corridor in front of the stormtroopers and Luke. The stormtroopers stopped walking, and Luke faced the Sith Lord, hiding his terror with feigned indignation.

"Darth Vader," he hissed. "Only you could be so bold. The Imperial Senate will not stand for this. When they hear you've attacked a diplomatic —"

"Don't act so surprised, Your Highness," Vader interrupted him with a scornful voice. "You weren't on any mercy mission this time. You have been under suspicion for years, and now we have proof of your peoples' treasonous actions. Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by Rebel spies on Scarif. I want to know what happened to the plans they sent you."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Luke claimed, feigning innocence. "I'm a member of the Imperial Senate on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan. …"

"You are a part of the Rebel Alliance…and a traitor," Vader snarled. "Take him away!"

As the stormtroopers roughly forced Luke out of the consular ship to the Star Destroyer, Vader and the black-uniformed officer turned to continue their inspection of the Rebel ship.

The officer glanced warily at his superior, wondering whether or not he could get away with speaking his mind to the man. "My Lord," he began carefully. "Holding him is dangerous. If word of this gets out, it could generate sympathy for the Rebellion in the Senate."

"I have traced the Rebel spies to him," Vader answered curtly. "Now he is my only link to finding their secret base."

The officer sped up to keep up with Vader's long strides, adding, "He'll die before he'll tell you anything. These Rebels always prefer death over betraying their comrades." His tone was scornful, as if loyalty was a less admirable trait than self-preservation and survival instinct.

"Leave that to me," Vader dismissed the statement. The officer let out a tiny exhale of relief that he hadn't been killed for speaking. "Send a distress signal and then inform the Senate that all aboard were killed," he ordered.

As Vader arrived at a corridor intersection, he was stopped by Commander Praji.

"Lord Vader, the battle station plans are not aboard this ship! And no transmissions were made. An escape pod was jettisoned during the fighting, but no life-forms were aboard."

Vader seethed in fury. "He must have hidden the plans in the escape pod," the Sith snarled furiously. "Send a detachment down to retrieve them. See to it personally, Commander. There'll be no one to stop us this time."

"Yes, sir," said Commander Praji, giving a sharp salute.

Vader stepped to a viewport and gazed down at the sand planet. From space, it looked just as inhospitable as he knew it was on the surface.

' _To think I lived there once. That it was my home before the Jedi came and took me away'_ he mused to himself. _'My mother breathed both her first and her last on this world, and for years I felt such…agonizing loss. But now I feel nothing. This world means as much to me as a speck of dust, and all its inhabitants might as well be dust, too. '_

* * *

"How did we get into this mess?" C-3PO moaned. "I really don't know how." He and R2-D2 were trudging down a steep dune, and the sand was already getting into his gears. C-3PO sighed. "We seem to be made to suffer. It's our lot in life." The droid glanced behind them.

His footprints and Artoo's treadmarks extended all the way back to the landed escape pod, which was still in sight where they'd left it. Had there been a less sandy spot to land on Tatooine, Artoo might have steered for it, but since Tatooine was a desert world, R2-D2 had only two choices: sandy desert or treacherous rock formations.

R2-D2 wisely opted for sand, and beeped at C-3PO to remind him of this, but the golden droid wasn't listening. "I've got to rest before I fall apart," C-3PO said, trying to remember the last time he'd had an oil bath. "My joints are almost frozen."

Artoo beeped, encouraging C-3PO to keep moving. C-3PO ignored him again and stopped to look around. There was a rock mesa to his right and sand everywhere else.

"What a desolate place this is," he observed. Tired of being ignored, Artoo whistled, made a sharp right turn, then started off in the direction of the rock mesa. "Where do you think you're going?" C-3PO asked.

R2-D2 answered with a stream of electronic noise.

"Well, I'm not going that way," C-3PO said. "It's much too rocky. This way is much easier."

R2-D2 justified his change of direction with another round of beeps. "What makes you think there are settlements over there?" C-3PO said. R2-D2 beeped a very detailed explanation in answer.

"Don't get technical with me," C-3PO chided him with annoyance.

The astromech decided it was time to inform C-3PO about his mission, and uttered more beeps and whistles.

"What mission?" C-3PO said, dumbfounded. "What are you talking about? I've just about had enough of you! Go that way! You'll be malfunctioning within a day, you near-sighted scrap pile!" Thoroughly flustered, C-3PO gave a swift kick to Artoo's right leg, then turned and headed off for the dunes. As he stormed off, he said in a scolding tone, "And don't let me catch you following me begging for help, because you won't get it."

Artoo rotated his domed head to see C-3PO walking away from him. He beeped again, trying to convince C-3PO to come with him.

"No more adventures," C-3PO shouted back as he continued walking. "I'm not going that way."

Artoo rotated his head to look away from C-3PO's departing figure, then rotated for another look at C-3PO's back. The astromech let out a forlorn, whimpering beep, then waited a moment longer. But when he realized C-3PO was determined to go his own way, R2-D2 turned his dome in the other direction and moved off, heading for the rock mesa.

"That malfunctioning little twerp," C-3PO muttered to himself several hours after parting ways with R2-D2. "This is all his fault! He tricked me into going this way, but he'll do no better." Tatooine's skies had turned cloudy, but C-3PO could still feel the heat from the planet's two suns. It was burning his metal so badly he feared the gold colour would be permanently destroyed.

He walked past the skeletal remains of a large, long-necked creature, and trembled at the thought that the deceased might have any living relatives nearby.

C-3PO noticed a metal O-ring was missing from his left knee joint, and realized it must have been jarred loose. He knew there was no chance he'd ever find the disc-shaped piece of metal again. With each step, his sand-clogged gears made horrid grinding sounds. He was ready to give up. Then he saw something on the horizon.

"Wait, what's that?" he said. It was an angular shape with a winking light. Despite the distance, the droid could tell he was looking at a large vehicle. "A transport! I'm saved!" In his loudest voice, he shouted, "Over here! Hey! Hey!" He continued shouting and waving his arms. "Help! Please, help!"

At first, he felt relief when he saw the transport turn and move in his direction. But after it arrived and C-3PO met the transport's drivers, he wished he'd gone with R2-D2 after all.

As Tatooine's two suns set, the temperature dropped. And from every shadowy hole and crevice that lined the canyon walls, nocturnal animals chirped and croaked and hissed in appreciation of the cool air that came with darkness.

* * *

R2-D2 had never been so spooked in his life. This was not the first time he had been on Tatooine, but the other time had been with humans in populated areas. This was an entirely different experience. He had already evaded sandpits, traversed circuit-jarring terrain, and boldly descended a high cliff to arrive at the canyon floor. However, these accomplishments had been merely challenges to overcome, and they did not bolster Artoo's sense of courage.

In his experience, dealing with nature was one thing, and dealing with organic creatures was something entirely different, especially when one was a stranger in their territory.

Even though his primary photoreceptor was equipped with radar and allowed him to see in the dark, it didn't change the fact that nightfall was—for many large predators —the preferred time for scavenging.

Despite his wariness, Artoo kept moving. He was a droid on a mission, and no one could ever accuse R2-D2 of being disloyal. And so, he rolled forward on his treads, proceeding cautiously through the rock canyon. A pair of lights flickered between two boulders, then winked off. Artoo paused. Using his sensors, the astromech detected a number of life-forms in this area.

As he wondered if the lights on his own domed head might have attracted the life-forms, he heard some rocks fall. They were just small rocks, pebbles mostly, but Artoo knew that rocks usually didn't fall on their own.

Then he saw a small, dark form dart behind a boulder. Artoo couldn't help but emit a whimpering beep. He started moving forward again, hoping that the life-forms would stay where they were and allow him to pass.

Suddenly, a squat, hooded figure with glowing eyes jumped out from the shadows, shouted in an unfamiliar language, and fired an ionization blaster at Artoo. The astromech shrieked as rippling charges of electricity travelled over and through his body. He didn't stop screaming until the charges crackled and died.

Then his dome lights dimmed, and he pitched forward and crashed against the hard ground. The shooter lowered his blaster.

He called out to the surrounding shadows, and seven more hooded figures scurried out from their hiding places.

All were short, most no taller than R2-D2 when standing. Like the shooter, they were completely shrouded in dark brown robes made of heavy cloth. Their only visible facial features were their glowing eyes: two bright yellow lights staring out from the darkness of their cloaked heads. They were a species native to Tatooine called Jawas. They chittered at one another with delight as they stepped up to examine the fallen droid.

The shooter holstered his blaster, then directed his fellows to lift the R2 unit. They picked him up and carried him off to their waiting transport.

* * *

The transport was an enormous rust-covered vehicle with a high, sharply angled prow that appeared to cut into the night sky. It rested on four massive treads that elevated the hull from the ground.

The Jawas carried the deactivated R2 unit under the transport and set him on his feet, positioning him under an extensible repulsorlift tube. As the tube was lowered a short distance above the droid's head, one hooded figure quickly welded a restraining bolt to a panel on the front of the droid's cylindrical body to prevent him escaping. After the restraining bolt was secured, the repulsor switched on, and R2-D2 was sucked up into the transport.

Having made their catch, the hooded figures entered the transport via a landing ramp.

Artoo reactivated to find himself in a scrap heap in a cramped, low-ceilinged chamber. Durasteel shavings had fallen on his head, but they fell away as he leaned away from a metal wall. Pushing various bits of scrap aside, he moved out of the heap, then rotated his dome to study his cluttered surroundings.

He was surprised to see an old RA-7 servant droid nearby, seated with his back against a metal wall.

The RA-7 gave Artoo a dismissive glance. Hearing an electronic voice, Artoo turned to face a red R5 astromech against another wall. The R5 rotated its' head in greeting.

Then R2-D2 spotted a binocular-eyed Treadwell droid and a box-shaped GNK power droid. Curiously, Artoo began to explore the chamber.

As he passed an ancient CZ secretary droid that was swaying back and forth amidst a pile of scrap, he heard a familiar voice call out, "Artoo?" It was C-3PO.

The golden droid had been hunched down against a wall, but seeing his friend, he struggled to his feet. "Artoo! It is you!" he cried happily. "It is you!"

Artoo beeped happily in salutation at C-3PO, who also had a restraining bolt secured to his chest. Both droids nearly stumbled when the transport suddenly lurched forward. Under the star-filled sky, the transport chugged off and headed out of the canyon.

* * *

The next morning, a squad of Imperial stormtroopers found the abandoned escape pod half buried in the sand. A Sentinel-class landing craft had delivered the stormtroopers to Tatooine, where they'd appropriated dewbacks —large four-legged reptiles—from the local authorities.

The landing craft lifted away from the escape pod's impact site, leaving the stormtroopers and their dewbacks to search for any sign of the pod's passengers. In addition to their standard armour and survival gear, the stormtroopers wore pauldrons—protective shoulder gear—over their right shoulders.

All the pauldrons were black except for the orange one worn by the squad leader, Captain Mod Terrik.

Through the lenses of his helmet, Terrik looked from the open pod to the surrounding sand, searching for any signs of passengers.

Because of winds and shifting sand, footprints didn't last long on Tatooine, so he considered himself lucky when he spotted the tracks. "Someone was in the pod," Terrik announced to the other stormtroopers.

He raised a pair of macrobinoculars to his helmet's lenses and scanned the desert, then added, "The tracks go off in this direction."

Near Captain Terrik, stormtrooper Davin Felth bent down to lift a shiny metal disk from the sand. Holding it up for Terrik's inspection, the stormtrooper said, "Look, sir—droids."

Underneath his helmet, the captain smirked smugly.

* * *

"Wake up! Wake up!" C-3PO said his friend as the transport came to a stop. R2-D2 had switched himself off, but at C-3PO's urging his dome's lights activated and he was immediately alert.

The other droids were beeping and whirring nervously as the transport came to a stop.

Behind the protocol droid, a wide hatch opened and filled the cramped chamber with blinding bright light.

"We're doomed," C-3PO predicted despairingly.

After their reunion, C-3PO had told Artoo everything he'd learned about their short, hooded captors since they'd picked him up in the desert. The Jawas scavenged the desert for machinery, which they repaired, utilized, and sometimes sold to moisture farmers or other inhabitants. Even their transport—called a sandcrawler—was a scavenged item, a relic from the era of Tatooine's mining boom.

The sandcrawler was large enough to serve as a mobile home for an entire clan of Jawas. It also was an autonomous mineral processing facility, equipped with ore crushers, a superheated smelter, and metal compactors.

Being trapped in a vehicle with all these features was more than C-3PO could stand. Jawas appeared at the open hatch, and a small power droid tried to retreat into the chamber.

C-3PO glanced at the Jawas, then back at Artoo and said, "Do you think they'll melt us down?"

Artoo beeped in reply as a Jawa stepped up behind C-3PO.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" the droid yelped in panic. "Will this never end?" He whimpered to Artoo.

The Jawas herded C-3PO, Artoo, and several other selected droids down a ramp. When he spotted the familiar young woman waiting at the bottom of the ramp with an even expression and crossed arms, Artoo let out the droid equivalent to a sigh of relief.

* * *

General Obi-Wan Kenobi of the Rebel Alliance, the Last Jedi Master, had been waiting on Tatooine with his apprentice, Commander Leia Naberrie of Red Squadron, for the arrival of the _Tantive IV_ with the Death Star plans, for almost three days. That particular morning, almost a day after the set rendezvous passed without any contact from their comrades, the Jedi were distracting themselves from their worry with training.

Leia was a beautiful young woman of seventeen, with fair skin, blonde hair that a faint curl in it and big blue eyes full of sorrow. She typically wore a navy, thigh length Nubian tunic with golden embroidery around the V-shaped neckline, dark purple leggings, a belt from which she hung her blaster and lightsabre hilt and kept her hair in an infinity-styled set of buns done with a navy ribbon. She only wore shades of navy, black and purple because they were the Nubian mourning colours.

Unfortunately, Obi-Wan had not been able to give Leia the training she deserved. Their responsibilities to the Rebellion prevented it. Instead, he threw her in the deep end, and added basics when the more advanced lessons required them. Thankfully, Leia was an excellent student, and picked things up quickly, as well as spending a large amount of her rare spare time studying the various holocrons he had salvaged from the Temple before fleeing Coruscant.

Now, after only four years of training, she was capable in all of six forms of lightsabre combat, had spent two years getting sessions of Jar'Kai alongside the late Padawan Ezra Bridger from the also deceased Ahsoka Tano, could hold her own when using a sabre staff, and was learning the basics of Vaapad. Most of her expertise came from fighting the various Inquisitors that managed to track the Jedi down though.

Ironically, given her birth father, Leia was struggling to grasp the form for once. While she could perform the movements of the Form, she couldn't access the Dark Side to use it to its' full potential.

Still, her Makashi, which Obi-Wan considered the most vital form in these times, and her Shien were both near the level of a Master so Obi-Wan didn't worry about her difficulties with the Seventh Form.

It relieved him actually. Vader, had grasped the concept of Vaapad easily. But he had surrendered to the Dark. Obi-Wan no concerns over Leia's loyalty to the Light.

"Very good Leia," he complimented her as she finished the katas and lowered her weapon, panting slightly from the heat, despite using the Force to prevent herself from noticing it.

"Thank you Master," she murmured. There was a troubled look in her eye, and Obi-Wan patiently waited as she opened and closed her mouth a few times before finally speaking.

"They're late," she said. Obi-Wan quirked an eyebrow, knowing that wasn't what she wanted to say, but indulging her anyway.

"I know," he agreed. "But the Force is on the side of the Light, my young Padawan. We must trust It to ensure the plans get to safety."

"But that's the thing," she suddenly burst out. "You're always saying that the Force is on our side and that 'everything is as It wills' but how can It will any of this and still be on our side?"

Obi-Wan's face softened in understanding, and he reached out to rest his hand on her shoulder. "Explain the Force to me Padawan."

She gave him a confused, slightly upset look before answering. "The Force is an energy field that connects all living things. It is multi-faceted with two main parts and-"

"There," Obi-Wan lifted a finger to stop her. "That is the answer to your question. There are two main parts to the Force." Leia had an uncomprehending look on her face as she listened to him. "The Dark Side and the Light Side both have opposing desires. The Purges, the Empire, the Death Star and everything related to it, that is all the work of the Dark's will.

But Rogue One, the Rebel Alliance, the surviving Jedi, all of that is the will of the Light," he placed both hands on her slim shoulders and looked her firmly in the eye. "You are not the first Jedi to falter in your faith, Leia," he told her softly. "Nor, Force-willing, will you be the last. But trust It. Because It trusts you enough to grant you the ability to use it, despite all the grief you have been through in your life. It trusts you to stay true to the Light."

Leia looked overwhelmed, and Obi-Wan didn't blame her. It was very early for such an intense philosophical speech.

"Yes Master," she said slowly. "I, I think I need to meditate on what you've told me."

"Very well," he agreed, watching her retreat into the shade of the hut they had taken refuge in. _'Soon, you will be too advanced for me to teach,'_ he thought musingly. _'So young, and yet on the verge of Knighthood already. Truly, you are the real Chosen One, not_ _ **him.**_ _There can be no doubt in the matter.'_

Several hours later, a group of Jawas pulled up to the hut.

"Go and see what they want Leia," Obi-Wan ordered, his eyes narrowing. "I sense it's important." He stroked his white beard thoughtfully.

"Yes Master," Leia replied, a hint of doubt in her voice. Leia didn't really think that the Jawas could have anything they needed, but she agreed to take a look at their merchandise anyway. A few moments later, she was relieved that she had because she knew the two droids that trundled out together immediately.

"How much for those two?" she asked finally, after faking interest in several of the droids to keep the Jawas from realizing how urgently she wanted them.

"Oh! Oh!" 3PO cried. "Mis-" Artoo cut him off, and Leia shot him a warning look as the Jawa chittered off a price.

"That's lunacy!" She scoffed at the first price, conscious of their low funds. "That R2 unit is a wreck, and the protocol's voice is annoying."

She ignored 3PO's indignant, "Well I never!"

"I'll pay two thousand each, at most."

They continued to haggle for a while longer, but Leia had grown up under the umbrella of the Rebellion, and knew how to haggle with the best of them. She finally paid, and waited in silence for the Jawas to leave before spinning to crouch before Artoo.

"Do you have the plans?" she demanded frantically. He whistled in confirmation, and Leia felt tears of relief spill out of her blue eyes.

"Thank the Force," she breathed. "There's still hope. C'mon," she continued, rising and hurrying back to the hut. "We need to see the prince's message."

* * *

"Alright Artoo," Obi-Wan nodded. "Play the message from His Highness."

Artoo gave a series of beeps that C-3PO helpfully translated for them. "He says the restraining bolt has short-circuited his recording system," C-3PO translated. "He also says that if you remove the bolt, he will be able to play back the entire recording."

"Oh, you just want your chains off," Leia accused the small droid, a small smile playing on her lips despite the circumstances. "Ok, give me a minute. And no wandering off from us, okay Artoo?"

Once the droid had beeped his agreement to the order, she bent over him and popped off the bolt. A few moments later, a hologram appeared of Prince Luke, a frantic expression on his face. Leia felt a strange feeling on seeing him, like he was someone she had been missing for all of her life. In a very non-romantic way, he felt like her soulmate, and she desperately wanted to help him.

"General Kenobi," the message began. "I regret that I am unable to meet with you in person we had arranged, but my ship was pursued from Scarif by the Empire, and we have now fallen under attack. I'm afraid my mission to retrieve you and the commander and bring you to Alderaan has failed. I have placed the information sent to us by the Rogue One team into the memory systems of this R2 unit."

They both glanced at R2-D2, then back at the hologram. "The Rebellion will know how to retrieve it," the man's hologram continued. "You _must_ see this droid safely delivered to my father on Alderaan. You know what happened to Jedha and Scarif, you know what is at stake for the galaxy. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."

The prince's hologram glanced over his right shoulder, then bent to adjust something, before he turned back to manually switch off R2-D2's holorecorder. The hologram flickered off.

"We need to rescue him!" Leia declared the instant the hologram turned off. She felt an urgency in her limbs, like her world would be shattered if the prince she never met died.

Obi-Wan eyed her worriedly. Of course, he knew why Leia felt an instant connection with the prince. She and Luke had been so closely bonded that they had registered as one baby in the Force while Padmé was pregnant. The connection Leia felt was in fact an old one, not a new one.

And it had sprung back to life from the thin thread it had become over seventeen years of separation to a full-on twin bond between the siblings as soon as Leia laid eyes on her brother's image. In short, his padawan wasn't thinking straight and probably wouldn't until she was reunited with her brother.

This wouldn't be pretty at all.

"We can't," he answered her quietly. "Not yet anyway." he continued at her look of betrayal. "Be rational Leia. The prince is too valuable as a hostage for the Empire to kill. And killing the crown prince of Alderaan would cause a great deal of problems for them. But these plans _must_ get back to the Rebellion. If they don't, the Empire will have the ability to crush all resistance, and everything Rogue One sacrificed their lives for will have been for nothing."

Leia stiffened, and Obi-Wan fell silent, knowing that he'd gotten through to her. She swallowed and nodded, blue eyes shimmering with tears. Guilt rose in the Master's throat, though he knew it was the right decision.

But making the decision to leave Padmé's son to the non-existent mercies of the Empire was not an easy one and he swallowed his own grief as he and Leia began readying themselves to leave. _'Please Force'_ he begged mentally. _'Not little Luke as well. Not Padmé and Bail's boy.'_


	4. Meeting Captain Solo

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.**

 **Chapter Three**

**Meeting Captain Han Solo**

While his squad of stormtroopers continued their search on Tatooine for the Death Star plans, Darth Vader used the _Devastator_ to take Prince Luke to the Death Star.

The Death Star was, quite simply, the largest starship ever built. It was first designed by Dr. Qui Xux under the orders of the now-dead Director Orsen Krennic, but it was Galen Erso who figured out how to make it work. It was a work of art to an engineer. It was in the shape of an orb with 120 kilometers in diameter, roughly the size of a Class IV moon.

Its' quadanium steel outer hull had two prominent features: an equatorial trench and a concave superlaser focus lens. The trench contained ion engines, hyperdrives, and hangar bays; while the superlaser itself had enough power to annihilate entire worlds, and it was powered by kyber crystals taken from the now-destroyed temple of Jedha, meaning it would never run out of power.

In addition to its' superlaser, the Death Star's weaponry included more than 10,000 turbolaser batteries, 2,500 laser cannons, and 2,500 ion cannons. Its' hangars contained 7,000 TIE fighters and over 20,000 military and transport vessels. The crew, troops, and pilots made up a population of more than one million. But despite all these staggering numbers, one person on the Death Star was still concerned about the Rebellion.

"Until this battle station is fully operational we are still vulnerable," Commander Tagge declared. He was in a conference room, seated at a circular black table with six other high-ranking Imperial officials.

"The Rebel Alliance is too well equipped," he continued. "They're more dangerous than you realize." Tagge had learned that the hard way after multiple embarrassing encounters with the Lothalian rebel cell. At least their Jedi were finally dead. Only Kenobi and his apprentice remained of the Order now and they wouldn't last much longer with all the might of the Inquisitorius after them.

"Dangerous to your starfleet, Commander," Admiral Motti sneered. "But they are not dangerous to this battle station!"

"The Rebellion will continue to gain support in the Imperial Senate as long as—"

"The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us," Tagge was interrupted by the arrival of Grand Moff Tarkin, the Death Star's conceiver, with Darth Vader at his side.

In the Imperial hierarchy, Tarkin reported only to the Emperor, and Vader served Tarkin as the Emperor's main enforcer, a fact that the Sith Apprentice viciously despised. He was just waiting for the opportunity to kill Tarkin without bringing the Emperor's rage down on him.

Vader remained standing while Tarkin took his seat between Admiral Motti and Commander Tagge.

"I have just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the congress permanently," Tarkin continued. "The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away."

"That's impossible," Commander Tagge protested. "How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?"

"The regional governors now have direct control over their territories," Tarkin explained coolly. "Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station."

"And what of the Rebellion?" asked Tagge. "If the Rebels have obtained a complete technical readout of this station, it is possible, however unlikely, that they might find a weakness and exploit it. Erso's daughter was one of them after all and he was an unwilling conscript who fled once before. He may have had sympathies for them."

"The plans you refer to will soon be back in our hands," Vader answered in his rasping voice.

"Any attack made by the Rebels against this station would be a useless gesture, no matter what technical data they've obtained," Motti declared arrogantly. "This station is now the ultimate power in the universe. I suggest we use it."

"Don't be too proud of this technological terror Erso and Krennic have constructed," Vader warned. "The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force."

Motti sneered at that. "Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Rebels' hidden fort—"

Suddenly, Motti stopped speaking. Vader never actually touched Motti, but the Dark Lord made a pinching movement with his gloved hand and caused Motti to desperately reach to his own throat.

The admiral was choking. His eyes remained fixed on Vader as his body spasmed. Pinching the air with his fingers, Vader said, "I find your lack of faith _disturbing_."

Tarkin eyed Vader, then said, "Enough of this! Vader, release him!"

"As you wish," Vader answered, lowering his hand. Air rushed into Motti's lungs and his head slumped forward. Breathing hard, he stared at the table, then looked up to boldly glare at Vader.

"This bickering is pointless," Tarkin announced. "Lord Vader will provide us with the location of the Rebel fortress by the time this station is operational. We will then crush the Rebellion with one swift stroke."

* * *

Obi-Wan and Leia were speeding toward Mos Eisley, the droids in the back of their craft, when they came across the remains of the Jawa sandcrawler.

Smoke billowed from fires that still burned inside and around the bulky, rusted vehicle. Dozens of Jawas lay dead, their small forms scattered across the sand. Regretfully, it was a familiar sight to the Rebels.

Leia stopped so she and her mentor could examine the wreckage. They climbed out, ignoring 3PO's hysterics at the sight. The sandcrawler's hull was riddled with blaster damage, and it appeared the entire Jawa clan had been wiped out.

"It looks like Sand People," Leia said slowly, frowning. "At least from what I've heard of their attacks. But, it's too big of a target to fit their profile properly."

"We were meant to think it was them though," Obi-Wan replied. "Look." He gestured at the animal tracks and continued. "These tracks are side by side. Sand People always ride single file to hide their numbers."

"These are the same Jawas that sold us R2 and 3PO," Leia pointed out, meeting her teacher's eyes. They had both figured out what had happened.

Obi-Wan pointed at the scorched dents in the sandcrawler's hull. "And these blast points, they're too accurate for Sand People. Only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise."

Leia nodded solemnly. "They're probably on the way to our hut already," she sighed, regret welling in her chest at the innocent lives loss. "Do we have time to give them a cremation, Master?"

He pursed his lips for a moment, taking in her strained expression. It was bad enough that her friends Arro, Cassian, Yosh, Pao and Stordan were all killed on Scarif, but she was also, (in her own mind) abandoning a comrade to the terrors of Imperial captivity, something that went against every instinct she had. It would probably break her heart to leave these innocents without a proper funeral after everything else.

"We can spare a short time," he conceded. "But we must hurry!"

Leia, a look of relief filling her delicate features, nodded hastily and the two of them began scrambling through the process of crafting a pyre for the Jawas. After Obi-Wan had said the ritual words of Force funeral, they lit it and climbed back into the speeder, flying away swiftly. Obi-Wan didn't mention the single tear that managed to escape his apprentice's eyes.

* * *

On the Death Star, two black-uniformed Imperial soldiers preceded Vader down a dark, narrow corridor lined with recessed doorways. All the doors were closed, and behind each was a detention cell.

The soldiers stopped in front of one door and it slid up into the ceiling. Vader ducked through the doorway and the soldiers followed. While the two soldiers stood at either side of the open doorway, Vader stepped to the centre of the cramped cell and loomed over the lone prisoner who sat on a bare metal bed that projected from the wall. Prince Luke.

"And now, Your Highness," Darth Vader said sinisterly. "We will discuss the location of your hidden Rebel base."

There was an electronic hum from behind Vader, then a spherical black droid hovered slowly into the cell. A ringed repulsorlift system wrapped around the droid's midsection in such a way that the sphere festooned with bizarre devices that jutted out at asymmetrical angles. The devices included an electroshock assembly, sonic torture device, chemical syringe, and lie determinator. It was an interrogator droid.

Luke's eyes went wide with fear. _'I must not give in!' T_ he prince thought frantically. _'Everything will be lost if I do! I must_ _ **not**_ _give in, even if it kills me!'_

The droid extended its syringe and hovered toward him. The cell door slid closed, and the interrogation began.

On Obi-Wan's instruction, Leia parked for a moment on a high, craggy bluff that overlooked a canyon. The droids followed the two Jedi to the edge of the bluff and gazed out over a wide, haphazard array of runways, landing pads, craterlike docking bays, and semi-domed structures that sprawled across the stark canyon floor.

"Mos Eisley spaceport," Obi-Wan said. "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy, save for Nar Shadda." Glancing at Leia, he added, "We must be cautious."

She nodded silently, wearing a drawn expression, before they turned and headed back to the speeder. Leia levitated the droids back into the back seats before they climbed back in themselves and sped off again.

Because Tatooine was in the Outer Rim of space, far from Republic and Imperial activity, Mos Eisley had long been a haven for thieves, smugglers, and pirates. Frequent travellers knew better than to stay in town too long. Curious tourists usually wound up wishing they'd stayed at home.

But by any standards, the drive into the city was quite an eyeful. Street traffic consisted of not only landspeeders and swoop bikes but large quadrupeds, including dewbacks and long-necked rontos. Some pedestrians were human, others mechanical, but most were aliens, some of which even Leia, who had been on dozens of planets, didn't recognize.

To avoid attracting unwanted attention, she kept her eyes on the road in front of her and steered carefully through the busy streets. Approaching a congested intersection, Leia slowed the landspeeder to allow some pedestrians to pass.

Suddenly, five stormtroopers emerged from the sides of the road. All carried blaster rifles. One stormtrooper—the squad leader with an orange pauldron over his right shoulder—waved at Leia, signalling him to pull over. She bit back a swear, realizing that she had driven straight into a checkpoint, something she was usually careful to avoid. Leia was the second-most wanted person in the galaxy after all. And her Master was _the_ most-wanted one.

Discreetly, the two used the Force to change their features enough to be unrecognized while not obviously changing as she pulled the speeder to the soldier's side.

The troopers were looking at C-3PO and R2-D2, who were in plain view on the landspeeder's rear section.

Leia cursed herself for being too upset to think of disguising them. She knew better than that! If Ezra hadn't died, he would've held such an amateurish mistake over her head for years. She shifted, feeling her heart race. Still, lying to troopers was a familiar routine, and Leia knew it well. She put her best, 'scared but innocent' expression and kept her hands in sight on the wheel so the trooper wouldn't think she was suspicious. He _would_ think she was up to something if she was completely calm while staring down an Imperial trooper however.

"How long have you had these droids?" He demanded.

"Oh," Leia widened her eyes innocently. "You know, I think it's about three or four seasons now," she lied. She looked over at her teacher. "That's right isn't it Uncle Ben?" she asked him, using his preferred alias. "You gave them to me for my twelfth birthday."

"That's right my dear," Obi-Wan agreed with a mild smile that he turned on the stormtrooper. "They're up for sale if you want them," he added, making C-3PO tremble.

"Let me see your identification," the trooper ordered, holding out a hand.

"You don't need to see our identification," Obi-Wan answered in a calm, controlled tone. He waved his hand casually as he spoke.

The officer looked at his fellow stormtroopers and echoed him in a dazed tone of voice. "We don't need to see their identification."

"These aren't the droids you're looking for," Leia took over, forcing back the smirk that she wanted to make.

"These aren't the droids we're looking for," the squad leader repeated hazily.

"We can go about our business," she continued.

"You can go about your business."

"We can move along now," Obi-Wan finished.

"Move along," echoed the squad leader, gesturing with his hand for Leia to proceed. "Move along."

She quickly drove the speeder away from the stormtroopers. A few minutes later, Obi-Wan directed her to park in front of a rundown blockhouse cantina on the outskirts of the spaceport. The moment the speeder had stopped, a Jawa ran up to run his small hands over the vehicle's hood.

Leia shooed him away, releasing her grip on the Force-disguise as she did so.

C-3PO helped R2-D2 off the back of the speeder, muttering grumpily, "I can't abide those Jawas. Disgusting creatures."

Leia ignored him, turning to Obi-Wan. "A ride to Alderaan won't be cheap, Master," she pointed out lowly. "Especially as we want to avoid any encounters with the Imps."

"Well, most of the best freighter pilots can be found here," Obi-Wan assured her. "But remember to watch your step. This place can be a little rough."

"Not my first time in a smuggler's lounge," Leia retorted, following him into the bar.

C-3PO saw three Jawas loitering in front of the cantina near a large dewback. He turned to the astromech and said, "Come along, Artoo." The droids hurried to catch up with Leia and Obi-Wan.

* * *

Like most buildings in Mos Eisley, the cantina was essentially a hole in the ground that was covered by a domed roof. Its interior was dark, and the air was filled with thick smoke and fast music. Beyond the entry lobby, a short flight of mud-packed steps descended into a crowded room. A U-shaped bar dominated the room's centre, and the walls were lined by small booths that offered some slight possibility for private conversations. Most of the patrons were aliens, as were the Bith musicians who performed at the bandstand to the right of the bar.

In a booth in the corner, sat a tall, lean man with dark hair wearing a white shirt with a black vest, pants, and boots. He had a blaster pistol in a quick-draw holster against his right thigh and he was sitting with his co-pilot, a large Wookiee named Chewbacca.

"Okay, Chewie," he said, catching sight of a pretty young woman making her way to the bar. "You go and find us a job so we can get Jabba off our backs." He stood, gaze fixed on the woman. "I'm gonna go and get a drink."

Chewie roared in reply, but Han was off already. The woman seemed like she was just Han's type. Meaning she had an aura of capability and spirit around her, mixed with the solemness that came from seeing the hard side of life.

And best of all, while she was gorgeous, with pretty features, big blue eyes and blonde hair pulled into an infinity bun, she was also the opposite of the dark haired and eyed Qi'ra in looks. He started to push through the crowd towards her.

Obi-Wan made his way into the crowd, ordering his Padawan to remain at the bar until he'd returned. Leia huffed and waited for the bartender's attention. He glared at her.

"What?"

"Your droids," the bartender snapped, jabbing at a sign saying 'NO DROIDS'. "They'll have to wait outside. We don't want them here."

She sighed and turned to the two. "Listen, why don't you wait out by the speeder," she suggested. "We don't want any trouble."

"I heartily agree with you, madam," C-3PO said. He climbed the steps back to R2-D2, then both made their exit from the building quickly.

Leia turned back to the bartender. "Gimme a Chagarian ale," she ordered, using the hard tone expected in this sort of place. She stiffened, feeling someone come up beside her.

"Make that two," a man said smoothly. "And I'll pay for both." Leia turned to him, unimpressed, and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, you will, will you?" She scoffed. He grinned at her and nodded.

"Yes," he said, leaning against the bar. "I will. What's your name Sunshine?"

"A Chagarian ale isn't enough payment for that, hun," she scoffed.

He smirked, inwardly delighted that his first suspicion of her being his type, that is to say, independent and fiesty, was right. "Han Solo," he introduced himself, sticking out a hand. "Captain of the Millennium Falcon."

That caught her attention, and she shook his hand quickly, a sharp look in her eye. "You're a pilot?"

' _Progress!'_ Han thought triumphantly. "Only the best pilot in the galaxy, sweetheart," he told her smugly. "I made the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs," he boasted as the barkeep handed them their drinks. Leia scoffed.

"Pull the other one," she told him icily. "Do I look like an idiot? Parsecs are a measure of space, not time. And the only safe route through Kessel is like twenty. Next time you lie, I suggest you make it believable at least."

Han smirked, moving closer. "The only safe route," he agreed. He put his lips beside her ear. "I prefer danger."

She pulled away and narrowed her eyes at him. "That's mildly impressive, I guess," she shrugged. "But I find it hard to believe you're the best pilot in the galaxy. I've met a lot of pilots, and all of them say they're the best. I'd have to see it to believe it."

"Well then," Han grinned at her. "Want a ride?"

"Maybe," she shrugged. "How much for a flight to Alderaan for two humans and two droids?"

"Your name," he answered immediately, wondering who her companion was.

"And if I add the avoidance of Imperial troops?"

He smirked, leaning closer to her. "A kiss," he whispered. She met his gaze, breath hitching slightly.

"Deal," she agreed softly. Then she skittered away, a smug look on her face as she downed the rest of her drink in a single gulp. "You'll get your kiss when we arrive."

He frowned, straightening up. "And the name? I'll take it as a deposit."

"Leia," she told him simply, just as Obi-Wan returned with a large Wookiee at his side.

"Chewie!" Han greeted his co-pilot at the same time as the Jedi greeted each other. Thewith a silent agreement, they all headed over to an empty booth in the corner to talk.

"Uncle, I got us a ride," Leia told her teacher, flipping a curl over her shoulder. "Dirt cheap, too." She smiled innocently at his suspicious look.

Chewie and Han spoke softly for a minute, Chewie cuffing his friend irritably over the head, before giving in to the lack of funds they were going to receive from the trip.

"Well then," Obi-Wan said finally. "Now that's sorted, shall we go? I'm afraid my niece and I are on a rather short time-limit." As he spoke, his cloak briefly shifted to expose his lightsabre hilt, but he quickly hid it again. He didn't pay attention to the man who had just scurried out after his cloak moved.

"Right," Han nodded, a hint of sheepishness in his hazel eyes after his discussion with Chewie. "Okay. We'll leave as soon as you're ready. Docking Bay Ninety-four."

"Ninety-four," Obi-Wan repeated. He glanced at his apprentice. "We'll sell the speeder and go straight there."

Han looked past Ben to the bar, noting, "Looks like we better hurry if you really want to avoid the Imps."

Leia glanced over her shoulder and saw a squad of stormtroopers were talking to the bartender, who was pointing at their booth.

The squad leader turned to the bartender and spoke, "All right, we'll check it out."

Cantina patrons stepped aside as the stormtroopers walked over to the corner that the bartender had indicated. But when the stormtroopers arrived at the booth, only Han and Chewbacca were seated at the circular table.

The stormtroopers glanced at the man and Wookiee, then moved past. When the stormtroopers were out of earshot, Han smiled at Chewbacca. "I promise, we'll get the money. But this girl," he sighed slightly, wondering what it was about her that made her _so_ attractive.

He was fairly sure he'd seen her on a wanted poster at some point after all, and Han generally preferred to avoid that type of girl. They generally weren't worth the trouble they brought in their wake.

But something about Leia seemed to draw him in, and he felt desperate to impress her, like some pathetic schoolboy. He sighed again, sipping at the remains of his drink. "Get back to the ship and get her ready, would ya?"

Chewbacca nodded and headed for the exit. Han stayed at the cantina to finish his drink and settle their tab.

Han was stepping away from his booth at the cantina when he came face-to-face with a green-skinned Rodian aiming a blaster at him.

"Going somewhere, Solo?" The Rodian asked, speaking through his short trunk. He pushed the blaster's barrel against Han's chest, forcing him to move back to the booth.

"Yeah, Greedo," Han said, cursing mentally as he took a seat so that his back was to the wall and the table was directly in front of him. "As a matter of fact, I was just going to see your boss. Tell Jabba that I've got his money for him." a total lie of course, but if Greedo took the bait it would give him a chance to get the kriff off planet.

"It's too late," Greedo said, after seating himself at the other side of the table. Keeping his blaster trained on Solo, he continued, "You should have paid him when you had the chance. Jabba's put a price on your head so large, every bounty hunter in the galaxy will be looking for you. I'm lucky I found you first."

"Yeah, but this time, I've got the money," Han repeated his lie, slouching back to rest his left knee against the table.

"If you give it to me, I might forget I found you."

"I don't have it with me." Han appeared to notice something on the wall to his left, and casually reached up to pick at it with his left hand.

This movement distracted the Rodian from noticing the slight shift of Han's other shoulder, as his right hand—below the table, unseen by Greedo—crept to his holstered blaster. Han continued, "Tell Jabba—"

"Jabba's through with you," Greedo interrupted. "He has no time for smugglers who drop their shipments at the first sign of an Imperial cruiser."

"Even I get boarded sometimes," Solo said as his right hand eased his blaster out of its holster. "Do you think I had a choice?"

"You can tell that to Jabba. He may only take your ship."

Han's expression became deadly serious. No one threatened his girl and got away with it. "Over my dead body."

"That's the idea." Greedo chuckled. "I've been looking forward to this for a long time."

"Yes, I'll bet you have."

No one at the bar saw what happened next, but all heads turned to Han's booth in response to a blinding flash of light and the loud sound of blasterfire. Cantina patrons and the bartender saw Han seated across from Greedo, a smoldering hole in the center of the table between them; the flash had come from the explosion of Greedo's blaster, its shattered remnants still clutched in his long-fingered hand.

Greedo's blaster had been destroyed by the same laserbolt—fired by Han—that had torn up through the table. A few sharp-eyed beings also noticed a fresh scorch mark on the wall to the left of Solo's head, which indicated that Greedo might have squeezed off at least one shot.

Before anyone could question the outcome of the blasterfight, Greedo's body slumped forward, collapsing dead upon the table's surface. Some of the cantina's more monstrous patrons actually enjoyed the smell of fried Rodian. Han rose from the table and holstered his blaster. As he walked past the bar, heading for the exit, he tossed some coins to the gaping bartender with a casual, "Sorry about the mess."

* * *

In the control room on the Death Star, Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin conferred with Commander Tagge about the interrogation of the captured prince.

"His resistance to the mind probe is considerable," Vader said. "It will be some time before we can extract any information from him."

Admiral Motti approached Tarkin and gave a report. "The final checkout is completed. All systems are operational. What course shall we set?"

Tarkin looked to Vader and gave a sinister smile that caused his skeletal face to stretch., "Perhaps he would respond to an alternative form of persuasion."

"What do you mean?" asked Vader neutrally.

"I think it is time we demonstrated the full power of this station," Tarkin answered. "Jedha and Scarif were the tests, now I believe that it's time to give a demonstration of the Empire's new jewel." He turned to Motti and commanded, "Set your course for Alderaan."

Motti smiled evilly as he answered. "With pleasure."


	5. The Falcon's Flight

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.**

 **Chapter Four**

 **The Falcon's Flight**

"Lock the door, Artoo," C-3PO urged.

The two droids were standing in an open doorway in an alleyway near the Mos Eisley cantina. They'd been waiting for Leia and Obi-Wan to return from the speeder dealer and had ducked into the doorway to avoid being seen by an approaching group of stormtroopers.

R2 extended his manipulator arm to the door's locking mechanism and gave it a twist. The door slid shut just in time. An Imperial Mark IV patrol droid hovered up the alley, preceding the stormtroopers.

"All right," the leader said to his men. "Check this side of the street."

"The door's locked," the squad leader said after another trooper checked the door that concealed the two droids. "Move on to the next one."

The stormtroopers followed the patrol droid deeper into the alley. The droids waited until the footsteps were gone before R2 opened the door and C-3PO peeked out.

"I would much rather have gone with Mistress Leia and Master Kenobi than stay here with you," C-3PO sulked. "I don't know what all this trouble is about, but I'm sure it must be your fault."

R2 answered with a beeped expletive that only another droid would understand.

"You watch your language!" cried the offended C-3PO.

* * *

"All right, give it to me, I'll take it," Leia said, facing the speeder dealer.

The speeder dealer, an insectoid alien, had finally agreed to buy the Jedis' battered old landspeeder for two thousand credits.

"It's not the amount I hoped for," she told her Master, showing him the credits. "Ever since the XP-38 came out, they just aren't in demand."

"It will be enough," Obi-Wan told her calmly. "Don't worry."

He knew it was a futile instruction of course, Leia was not only feeling her own grief, worry and the pressure of getting R2 to Alderaan, but she was also no doubt feeling echoes of whatever Luke was going through as well through the newly re-established twin bond.

As they proceeded through Mos Eisley's back alleys, didn't notice that they were being followed by a Kubaz, an alien with a short, prehensile trunk for a nose. The Kubaz wore protective goggles and a dark cloak, and worked as an information dealer and spy for hire. One of his current clients was an Imperial stormtrooper squad leader and he had recognized them from their wanted posters. The Kubaz didn't let either of the Rebels out of his sight.

* * *

A short walk from the Mos Eisley cantina, Docking Bay 94 was a large circular pit that had been excavated from the sandy bedrock and reinforced with duracrete. It had an open roof, high surrounding walls, and was barely large enough to contain the YT-1300 Corellian freighter that rested on its floor.

The freighter was Han Solo's ship, the _Millennium Falcon._

Several figures moved around under the Falcon's hull. Save for the leader, they all carried blasters. They were led by the most powerful crime lord in the Tatooine system, and all the other figures in the docking bay worked for him.

Until earlier that day, he had also employed a hit man named Greedo. The gangster's name was Jabba.

"Solo," Jabba bellowed in Huttese at the _Falcon_. "Come out of there, Solo!"

"Right here, Jabba," Han called from behind the Hutt.

Jabba twisted his bulky form to see Solo and Chewbacca enter the docking bay from the passage that led up to the street. Chewbacca was casually carrying his bowcaster.

Han sauntered forward with a grin on his face. "Hey Jabba," he greeted the Hutt. "What're you doing here? You didn't think I was gonna run, did you?"

"Han, my boy, you disappoint me," Jabba observed. "Why haven't you paid me? Why did you fry poor Greedo?"

"Look, Jabba, next time you want to talk to me come see me yourself. Don't send one of these twerps." Han gestured at Jabba's blaster-wielding henchmen, including a man who wore a head-concealing helmet and antique body armour: a notoriously dangerous bounty hunter named Boba Fett.

"Han, I can't make exceptions." Jabba shrugged. "What if everyone who smuggled for me dropped their cargo at the first sign of an Imperial starship? It's not good for business."

"Look, Jabba, even I get boarded sometimes," Han defended himself. "You think I had a choice? I got a nice easy charter now. I'll pay you back plus a little extra. I just need a little more time."

"Han, my boy, you're the best," Jabba finally said. "So, for an extra twenty percent…"

"Fifteen, Jabba," Han cut in testily. "Don't push it."

"Okay, fifteen percent," Jabba agreed. "But if you fail me again, I'll put a price on your head so big, you won't be able to go near a civilized system."

Han hid his nervousness behind a casual countenance, even as he tried to come up with a plan to get out of this mess. Currently, he was at a loss. As much as he played at being a pirate, he didn't have it in him to hand his passengers, who he had finally recognized as General Kenobi and Commander Naberrie of the Rebel Alliance, over to the Empire. And that was the only way he could come up with the money he owed Jabba in time.

Turning to the _Falcon's_ landing ramp, Han added, "Jabba, you're a wonderful human being." Chewie followed him into the _Falcon._

Jabba glared at his hired thugs then snapped, "Come on," and turned and slithered out of the docking bay.

* * *

"If the ship's as fast as he's boasting, we ought to do well," Obi-Wan muttered to his apprentice as they walked through an alleyway that led to Docking Bay 94. They had just recovered the droids from their hiding place, and the droids now followed in their tracks.

Rounding a corner, they found Chewbacca standing in the docking bay entrance. He looked restless, and they wasted no time following him through the doorway. Anything that distressed a Wookiee generally signalled it was time to make a swift exit, and they had long-overstayed their welcome on Tatooine.

Across from Docking Bay 94, the Kubaz spy watched from the shadows. After the droids had passed through the docking bay entrance, the Kubaz lifted a comlink to his face and summoned the stormtroopers.

Obi-Wan, Leia, and the droids followed Chewbacca down a flight of steps to the docking bay floor. When they arrived before the _Millennium Falcon,_ they stopped and stared at the ship while Chewbacca headed up the ship's landing ramp.

Leia nearly went into shock at the sight of the wreck that was Han's ship.

The cockpit that projected out from the starboard side and the long forward mandibles made the _Falcon_ recognizable as an old Corellian freighter, but the entire ship appeared to have been slapped together from used or rejected parts. To add further insult to the original design, a ridiculously oversized sensor dish was affixed to the top.

The sight made Leia suddenly reconsider whether or not she and Obi-Wan had properly interpreted the Force's will. She had assumed that It wanted them to travel with the co-pilots they had met separately, but now she suspected the Dark Side had led them to their deaths in hyperspace.

Leia turned to whisper to her mentor. "Can the Force help us keep ships together in hyperspace? Cause every other scenario I think of ends up with us combusting in space. _If_ it even gets off the ground that is." Obi-Wan gave her an amused smile, but said nothing as he continued striding forward.

Han was standing below the _Falcon's_ hull, checking the umbilicals connection as he topped off the fuel tanks. He recognized the look on Leia's face, and smirked in pride. She would see the truth soon enough when she saw the ship in action.

"She'll make point five past lightspeed," he said, stepping away from the umbilicals. "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, Sunshine." With pride, he added, "I've made a lot of special modifications myself. But we're a little rushed, so if you'll just get on board, we'll get out of here."

They made their way to the boarding ramp, C-3PO greeting Han politely as he passed. Han looked away, shaking his head. He'd never been very fond of droids.

At the top of the landing ramp, Obi-Wan, Leia, and the droids made their passed the cockpit, where Chewbacca was preparing the ship for lift off, and arrived in the main hold.

In a corner to the right, a three-passenger seat wrapped around a circular holographic game board.

On the left, there was an engineering station with numerous scopes and controls, some of which appeared to have been secured with tape and glue. Most of the wall and ceiling panels were missing, leaving wires and machinery exposed.

Leia nearly went into shock at sight. "Most of these aren't even compatible with each other," she hissed to Obi-Wan. "We really will have to use the Force to get if off the ground!"

He smiled at her gently. "Don't worry Leia," he soothed the stressed Padawan. "The Force led us to these people and their ship for a reason. Everything will work out. Have faith my dear."

* * *

The stormtrooper squad found the Kubaz spy waiting for them outside Docking Bay 94.

"Which way?" The squad leader demanded.

The spy pointed to the docking bay entrance.

"All right, men," commanded the squad leader, turning to them. "Load your weapons!"

Then the seven troopers descended the steps that led to the docking bay floor.

Han was under the Falcon, disconnecting the umbilicals, when he saw the stormtrooper squad charge into the docking bay.

"Stop that ship!" One of them yelled as three of the troopers immediately opened fire.

Han snapped his blaster from his holster and shot back at the troopers.

"Blast 'em!" ordered the squad leader.

Han aimed high to hit the duracrete ceiling above the troopers' heads. His fired bolts struck the ceiling with explosive force, sending large chunks of duracrete down upon the astonished soldiers. Han didn't stop firing until he was halfway up the landing ramp.

"Chewie, get us out of here!" He shouted as he sealed the ramp's access hatch and bolted to the cockpit. The engines kicked on and the entire ship trembled in response.

In the main hold, R2 used his magnagrips to secure himself to the deck while Leia, Obi-Wan and C-3PO belted into the seat that wrapped around the game table. Leia briefly considered going to one of the guns, but the ship was heaving too badly for her to get there without being thrown all over the place and probably receiving an injury.

"Oh, my, I'd forgotten how much I hate space travel," C-3PO cried frantically.

The stormtroopers continued firing as the Falcon, without any lift-off clearance from the spaceport authority, flew up through the open roof of the docking bay.

On a nearby street in Mos Eisley, another stormtrooper squad heard the roar of the Falcon's engines. The troopers turned in time to glimpse the fleeing ship's sub-light drive exhaust blaze with intense light.

The ship ascended rapidly into the pale blue sky. As Chewbacca guided the Falcon up through Tatooine's atmosphere and into space, he pointed to the radar scope and barked at Han.

"Looks like an Imperial cruiser," Han identified after glancing at it. "I guess the Imps found out that the galaxy's top two Most Wanted are on board. Try and hold them off. Angle the deflector shield while I make the calculations for the jump to lightspeed."

Han rose from his seat to flip a series of control switches. He was still making his calculations when he jumped back into his seat. As he sat back down, two larger blips appear on the radar screen. According to the readout, each blip was an Imperial Star Destroyer.

"Stay sharp!" Han told Chewie. "There are two more coming in; they're going to try to cut us off!"

Just then, Leia and Obi-Wan rushed into the cockpit and grabbed a hold of the two seats behind Han and Chewbacca. They had heard Han's announcement regarding the incoming ships, and saw a clear field of stars beyond the cockpit window.

"Should I go for the gun?" Leia asked urgently. Han waved her off.

"I got this, Sunshine. We'll be safe enough once we make the jump to hyperspace. Besides, I know a few manoeuvers that I can use to prove to you I'm the galaxy's best pilot. We'll lose them!"

The Star Destroyers fired at the Falcon and a bright flash exploded outside the cockpit. Another volley of laserfire pounded the Falcon's deflector shields, causing the ship to rock violently.

Han grinned as he tightened his grip on the controls. "Here's where the fun begins!" he exclaimed happily.

"How long before you can make the jump to lightspeed?" Obi-Wan asked tensely.

"It'll take a few moments to get the coordinates from the nav computer," Han answered.

The Falcon shook again as its shields took another hit.

"We don't have a few minutes," Leia warned. "At the rate they're gaining…"

"Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?" Han snapped back. He liked the girl, but this wasn't the time for her to be distracting him.

A red warning light activated in front of Chewbacca.

"What's that flashing for?" Leia pointed it out to him.

"We're losing our deflector shield," Han replied, slapping her hand out of the way. "Go strap yourselves in. I'm going to make the jump to lightspeed."

Leia and Obi-Wan left the cockpit and returned to the hold.

Han reached for the hyperdrive controls and threw the ignition switch. Suddenly, the field of distant stars was transformed into long streaks of light that radiated from infinity and appeared to sweep over the ship. The _Falcon_ had entered hyperspace, effectively escaping the two Star Destroyers. But as fast as the _Millennium Falcon_ could travel, the two Rebels' mission would never be completed, and the brave little astromech droid would never be delivered to the planet Alderaan.


	6. Alderaan

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. I'm using Spanish as the language of Naboo, because I headcanon it.**

 **Chapter Six**

**The Destruction of Alderaan**

"We've entered the Alderaan system," Admiral Motti announced to Grand Moff Tarkin. They were in the control room on the Death Star. Tarkin stood before a wide viewscreen that displayed a small green planet. The planet Alderaan, where Prince Luke hailed from. At the sound of approaching footsteps, Tarkin and Mott turned to face an adjoining corridor.

Two black-uniformed Imperial soldiers led Prince Luke into the control room. A pair of binders secured his wrists in front of him, his clothes were dirty from electro-shocks and his face was pale but still defiant. Behind him, Darth Vader followed like a malevolent shadow.

"Governor Tarkin," Luke sneered. "I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board."

Tarkin smiled, making his skeletal face stretch. "Charming to the last, _Your Highness_." He sneered the title mockingly as he reached out to touch Luke's chin while saying, "You don't know how hard I found it signing the order to terminate your life!"

"I'm surprised you had the courage to take the responsibility yourself!" Luke hissed in reply, jerking his head away from Tarkin's hand.

"Prince Luke," Tarkin's tone suddenly gained a sinister edge. "Before your execution I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will make this battle station operational. No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now."

"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers," Luke declared defiantly, keeping his worry out of his expression.

"Not after we demonstrate the power of this station," Tarkin informed him confidently. "In a way, you have determined the choice of the planet that will be destroyed first. Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the Rebel base, I have chosen to test this station's destructive power…on your home planet of Alderaan." He gestured to the viewport.

At the sight of his homeworld, Luke's confident expression became suddenly fearful. "No!" he protested. "Alderaan is peaceful. We have no weapons. You can't possibly—"

"You would prefer another target?" Tarkin interrupted. "A military target? Then name the system!"

' _He's insane'_ Luke thought in panicked despair. _'He's completely insane. What do I do? I can't betray the Alliance. But Alderaan! Think, Luke, think. There must be a way to save them both! You just have to find it!'_

"I grow tired of asking this," Tarkin continued. "So this will be the last time." He advanced toward Luke, forcing him to step backward into Vader. " _ **Where is the Rebel base**_?"

Luke trembled against Vader. _There are billions of people on Alderaan! I have to save them!_ He gazed past Tarkin's shoulder to look again at Alderaan on the viewport.

"Dantooine," he whispered, lowering his head in shame. "They're on Dantooine."

"There," Tarkin said with satisfaction. "You see, Lord Vader, he can be reasonable." Then he turned to Admiral Motti and said, "Continue with the operation. You may fire when ready."

"What?" Luke gasped as Motti stepped away to a control console.

"You're far too trusting," Tarkin smirked. "Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration. But don't worry. We will deal with your Rebel friends soon enough."

"No!" Luke cried, stepping toward Tarkin. Then he felt Vader's cold, tight grip on his arm, pulling him back into Vader's chest and away from Tarkin.

"Commence primary ignition," An intercom voice announced, and Luke heard the sounds of generators powering up. But he kept his stunned eyes fixed on the viewscreen.

Even from space, Alderaan was lushly beautiful, its grassy plains making the world resemble an emerald amidst the stars. Before Luke became a Senator, he had spent most of his youth on the green world save for a handful of trips off of the planet. He knew its geography so well that he could, from his perspective on the Death Star, pinpoint the capital, Aldera, where he'd grown up…where his father still lived, though Queen Breha had died a year prior.

He wondered what time it was, if Bail or his adopted sister Winter were in their home right now, or if Winter was still at school on Chandrila. Bail had been preparing Alderaan for an attack when Luke left to intercept the plans, but there was no way to defend against the Death Star. No way to warn them or delay it to allow them time for an evacuation.

' _Father, I'm so sorry.'_ Luke couldn't believe that all his friends and loved ones, every person and every place on his planet was about to be annihilated. And all because of the Empire's greed and cruelty.

None of the Death Star's workers seemed to care that they were about to destroy an entire planet full of innocent people. None of them cared that Jedha and Scarif (which housed a base containing several thousand of their supposed comrades) had been destroyed already.

Even as he saw the space station's green laser beam streak out at his homeworld while he yelled in denial, his frantic struggles restrained by Vader's harsh grip, Luke prayed desperately for the Death Star to fail as it had not when used the first two times it was activated. But it didn't. Galen Erso had been too good at his job.

And in one explosive instant, Alderaan was gone. Luke felt a scream of horror and denial wrench itself from his throat, his legs giving out from underneath him so only Vader's grip kept him from collapsing in a heap on the steel floor.

* * *

Leia was in the Falcon's hold, taking advantage of the spare time to work on her skills against a training remote, when it suddenly hit. She felt a wave of horror and grief crash through the Force, making her fall to her knees and double over from the raw pain of it. It was worse than anything she had ever felt before. Not even Lasan's Fall, or Jedha and Scarif's destruction had sent such grief through the Force, though it had been close.

A flick of her fingers turned off the remote, allowing her to turn her attention to her Master, who was also suffering from the sudden pain wafting through the Force.

Obi-Wan had gone pale, staggering to sit down near the engineering station. He leaned on hit heavily, and not for the first time Leia remembered that he was fifty-seven years old. While that wasn't really old for a human, Obi-Wan's life had not been conducive to a long existence.

"Master," she murmured, pushing herself up. "What _was_ that?" She asked, though she wasn't sure she really wanted to know. "It felt-" she faltered, unable to phrase the feeling of a million voices being silenced at once that had crashed through the Force.

"I suspect," he replied in a raw voice. "That the Death Star was used again."

Leia inhaled sharply at the confirmation of her worst fears. "What now?"

"You best get on with your exercises," he answered tiredly after a moment. "There is nothing that we can do now."

She nodded silently, scooping the remote back up and flicking it to the highest setting again. She kept her eyes on the remote and batted at two fired bursts as Han entered the hold with a smug smirk on his face.

"Well, you can forget your troubles with those Imperial ships," he announced as he took a seat at the engineering station. "I told you I'd outrun 'em."

"Thanks," Leia said distractedly as she continued swinging her lightsabre at sting bursts from the remote.

Han felt his grin falter slightly in disappointment at Leia's indifference. "You're welcome, Firecracker. But don't everybody else thank me at once. Anyway, we should be at Alderaan at about oh two hundred hours." He glanced at the game table where Chewie and the droids were playing an intense game of dejarik before looking back at Leia to admire her athletic form.

Artoo moved a multilegged blue houjix. Chewbacca countered by sending his Kintan Strider two steps across the table.

"Now be careful, Artoo," C-3PO urged fretfully as Artoo moved his Mantellian savrip over to Chewbacca's just-moved Kintan Strider. The savrip seized the Kintan Strider, hoisted it up, then smashed it down upon the gametable, making Chewbacca growl angrily at Artoo.

"He made a fair move," C-3PO observed in response to Chewie's snarl.

"Screaming about it can't help you," Han told him, rolling his eyes discreetly without actually removing them from Leia, who was still intent on her training. "Let him have it. It's not wise to upset a Wookiee."

"But sir, nobody worries about upsetting a droid." C-3PO protested indignantly as he turned to face Han.

Han grinned mischievously at 3PO. "That's because a droid don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that."

C-3PO looked at Chewbacca, who raised his arms and cupped his hands behind his head, flexing his hirsute muscles.

"I see your point, sir," Threepio agreed before leaning over to Artoo and advising, "I suggest a new strategy, Artoo-Detoo. Let the Wookiee win."

Artoo answered with a surprised beep, as Chewbacca chortled happily.

When Obi-Wan felt somewhat recovered, he resumed watching his apprentice practice with the remote.

Leia had performed exercises like this so often, she could easily do them in her sleep. In fact, her eyes were currently closed, forcing her to rely entirely on the Force to prevent herself being stung. Obi-Wan felt a pang of sorrow, remembering how, only a year ago, she would have been joined in this exercise by Ezra while he and Caleb observed their apprentices' progress.

Ezra had had such potential, and Obi-Wan had trained Caleb personally after Order 66. He had watched them both become strong Jedi. Their losses were yet another crime among the billions committed by the Empire. And Caleb would have been an excellent father to young Jacen.

"Leia, I am going to meditate for a bit," he said after satisfying himself that she needed no supervision or advice. "Continue with your Soresu practice. Chewbacca, would you be so good as to direct me to somewhere I can be in peace?"

Chewbacca growled in agreement, and the two droids joined them, Threepio exclaiming that he had seven hundred different meditations downloaded and leaving Leia and Han alone in the hold, Leia not breaking her rhythm.

"So," Han cleared his throat after a while of watching the Jedi practice her movements skillfully. "Rebel Jedi huh? How'd that happen?"

She glanced briefly at him, a sting grazing her neck as she did so, before returning to her practice. "I was born to it," she explained briefly and vaguely.

"Oh? Whaddya mean?" He pressed. She huffed and bent backwards to avoid two stings.

"You tell me your story and I'll tell you mine," she challenged.

"Fine," Han agreed impulsively, surprising her enough to let her be caught in the shoulder by the remote. She swore, turned it off, and sat down beside him.

"Go on then," she prompted. He grimaced at her, but nodded reluctantly, already regretting the deal.

"My parents were Jonash and Jaina, no surnames. Da worked in the Engineering Corporation shipyards on Corellia and died in an accident when I was young. Mom ended up working for Garris Shrike afterward. Ya know him?"

"Unfortunately," she grimaced. The look in her eyes spoke of recognition of where his story was probably going.

"Anyway," Han cleared his throat briskly. "She died when I was about eight or nine, and when I was twelve, Shrike sold me to Lady Proxima's White Worm gang to pay off a gambling debt he owed her. When I was nineteen, I got out by joining the Imperial Navy and becoming a Corporal. The recruitment officer gave me the last name 'Solo' there."

He couldn't bring himself to mention Qi'ra and everything she'd done. It was still too painful, and he was already shocked that he was telling her this much.

Leia had some sort of charisma around her, though. Maybe it was one of those mind tricks she supposedly had, though Han didn't believe in the Force. Not really anyway. It was just a bunch of tricks and mumbo jumbo, though he wasn't about to go around _telling_ her that, of course. He did have some sense, despite what Chewie thought.

"About three years after that, I met Chewie while I was stationed on Mimban. The Imps were keeping him caged, and I helped him escape. We joined Tobias Beckett's crew for a while, but that went sour quickly. After a slight incident involving Crimson Dawn, we ended up getting employed by Jabba as one of his smuggling crews, and that's what we've been doing ever since."

Leia gave him a considering look, and he had the irrational feeling that she was weighing his soul. Then she nodded crisply once. "Okay, a deal's a deal," she declared, and he felt a surge of relief that she was neither questioning him, nor was she asking questions about his tale.

"My Tía Padmé was a former Queen and Senator of Naboo, one of our most famous actually," she began. "But our whole family has always been very involved in activism. Abuelo was a member of the Refugee Relief Movement in his younger days. He went back to it during the Clone Wars and after the Empire came to power, he stayed and used his position to help fugitives escape the troopers.

Nonna and Mama were both nurses, and Papa was one of the Nubian Royal Fighter Pilots. When the Empire rose, Tía Padmé refused to swear loyalty to it, and she protested against Order 66. Vader himself killed her, and her unborn daughter with her. After that, my family became very involved in the Nubian Rebel movement.

Abuelo would smuggle fugitives to a basement in our family estate in Varykino, and they would stay there until it was safe to send them to the space port to be escorted off-planet through a tunnel in the room. But when I was six, almost seven, we were discovered. Abuelo was killed fending them off while my parents, Nonna and my sisters and I escaped through the tunnel with help from a Rebel agent who'd heard we were going to be raided and came to help us."

She paused and exhaled shakily. She was mostly cool, relaying her history in an even tone of voice. But a faint tremble could just about be heard as she spoke of fleeing her home.

"After that, we joined the Alliance properly. Mama and Nonna worked in the hospital, while Papa was a fighter pilot/Intelligence agent. He was KIA when I was nine. Nonna died a year after Abuelo was killed in a gas attack. My eldest sister, Ryoo, disappeared during an evacuation when I was eleven, and Mama died of pneumonia a few months later. I've always thought the grief was too much for her to bear, though she _did_ fight to stay with us."

Awkwardly, Han reached out to brush his fingers over her hand, making her jolt slightly. She gave him a worn smile in reply, intertwining their fingers together as she continued.

"There isn't much else to say, really," she went on. "After Mama's death, I was twelve and my sister Pooja was eighteen. We both decided to join the Rebellion, instead of just being refugees under its' protection. I joined the pilots, and Pooja went into Intel. She caught Mon Mothma's eye quickly after the Senator came to the Alliance full-time, and she's her protegee now.

Meanwhile, General Kenobi realized that I had the potential to become a Jedi, and he offered to train me. I agreed, and now here I am." She shrugged and pulled away, turning the remote back on and falling into position. "Training."

Han opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the others' return. A light flashed on a scope at the engineering station.

"Good timing," Han told them. "Looks like we're coming up on Alderaan." He rose from his seat and headed out of the hold to the cockpit. Chewbacca followed him.

"I just told a smuggler I barely know my whole life story based on instinct," Leia admitted to her Master. "Why would I do that?"

"Your instinct is the Force, speaking to you," Obi-Wan reminded her, gently placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I know," Leia agreed. "But It's telling me to trust him, and I don't think I can handle another friend dying."

Obi-Wan sighed heavily. Usually Leia was calm about those she lost to death, being a strong believer in the Jedi philosophy. But all her losses were beginning to build up, and she was never really given the time to grieve properly for them, having to go from warzone to warzone without a proper break. He didn't blame her for being worn out with it all.

"There is no death," he reminded her. "Only the Force."

"Yes Master," she agreed, still looking tired and unhappy. His heart panged, remembering the cheerful toddler who had gurgled happily at him whenever he visited to check she was shielded, or for Rebel work. It had been a long time since Leia had been so happy.

* * *

On the Death Star, Imperial Officer Cass, a white-haired adjutant to Grand Moff Tarkin, entered the conference room. There he found Darth Vader standing at one end of the round table at the room's centre, with Tarkin seated across from him at the other end. Tarkin looked up from the table's data screen. "Yes?" he said pointedly as he did so.

"Our scout ships have reached Dantooine," Officer Cass reported tensely, keeping his eyes fixed on the opposite wall. "They did find the remains of a Rebel base, but they estimate that it has been deserted for some time. They are now conducting an extensive search of the surrounding systems." Having delivered his report, Cass turned and swiftly exited the room before either of his superiors could decide to 'shoot the messenger,' as the Corellians said.

"He lied!" Tarkin roared in outrage, rising from the table to approach Vader. "He lied to us!"

"I told you he would never consciously betray the Rebellion," Vader answered coldly in his mechanical voice, making Tarkin scowl harder at him.

"Terminate him immediately!"

* * *

Blue-and-white shimmers of energy flowed past the Falcon as it neared the end of its trip through hyperspace. Han and Chewbacca were seated at the cockpit controls, preparing to exit the swirling tunnel of lights.

"Stand by, Chewie," Han ordered. "Here we go." He threw a lever to kill the hyperdrive, then added, "Cut in the sub-light engines."

The Falcon decelerated and dropped into real-space. The energy shimmers that had been visible outside the cockpit window were replaced by a field of distant stars, along with an immediate barrage of unexpected debris.

"What the…?" Han blurted out in surprise as floating chunks of matter hammered at the Falcon's particle shields. "Aw, we've come out of hyperspace into a meteor shower. Some kind of asteroid collision. It's not on any of the charts." the two passengers entered the cockpit in response to the hammering racket outside the ship.

"What's going on?" Leia asked tensely. Han explained, "Our position is correct, except…no Alderaan!"

"What?" Leia gasped. She knew, logically, what must have happened, but it was too horrifying to comprehend.

Jedha had about a million people on it, and Scarif only several thousand. but Alderaan was a heavily populated Core World. Surely not even the Empire would dare do something like that?

"It ain't there," Han insisted. "It's been totally blown away."

"It's been destroyed…by the Empire!" Obi-Wan concluded grimly, though Han was doubtful.

"The entire starfleet couldn't destroy the whole planet," he argued. "It'd take a thousand ships with more firepower than I've—"

"Haven't you heard about Jedha and Scarif?" Leia snapped back at him.

An alarm sounded before he could reply and he glanced quickly at a sensor scope. "There's another ship coming in," he announced to them.

"It's an Imperial fighter," Obi-Wan warned. As if in response to his words, a huge explosion burst outside the cockpit window, then an Imperial TIE fighter streaked past the Falcon.

The Twin Ion Engine ship was immediately recognizable by its two hexagonal solar array wings on either side of a small, spherical command pod.

"It can't have followed us, it's a short-ranged fighter," Leia pointed out tensely. "Where'd it come from?"

"I dunno," Han frowned. "There are no bases around here I don't think."

"There shouldn't be," Obi-Wan agreed, crinkling his brow. "Bail would have warned me if the Empire had set one up. Alderaan has always been a safe haven for the Alliance, and that would take that security net away from us."

"It sure is leaving in a big hurry," Leia noted uneasily as the TIE fighter sped away from the Falcon. "If they identify us, we're in big trouble."

"Not if I can help it," Han declared, steering after the TIE fighter and away from the planetary debris. "Chewie—jam its transmissions."

"It'd be as well to let it go," Obi-Wan said. "It's too far out of range."

"Not for long…" Han increased power to the sub-light engines.

"A fighter that size couldn't get this deep into space on its own," Obi-Wan pointed out.

"Maybe he was part of a convoy and got lost," Leia suggested hopefully, despite knowing that the Force was never so merciful.

"Well, he ain't going to be around long enough to tell anybody about us," Han insisted.

"Look at him," Leia murmured, leaning forward slightly to see better. "He's heading for that small moon."

"I think I can get him before he gets there…he's almost in range," Han narrowed his eyes as Obi-Wan went rigid in his seat, face paling rapidly in horrified realization.

"That's no moon!" The General cried. "It's a space station!"


	7. Boarding The Death Star

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.**

 **Chapter Seven**

**Boarding The Death Star**

"It's too big to be a space station," Han denied Obi-Wan's claim. But even before he'd finished, Han sounded doubtful of his own words. Like the others in the cockpit, he could now make out surface details on the object in view, and the details had an unnatural symmetry.

"I have a very bad feeling about this," Leia announced, worry and experience radiating from her as she stared anxiously at the station.

"Turn the ship around!" Obi-Wan insisted.

"Yeah," Han agreed. "I think you're right. Full reverse! Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power." Chewbacca did as he was instructed, but the Falcon began to shake violently and continued to travel after the TIE fighter and toward the object, which was now clearly visible as a space station.

"Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power," Han repeated, shouting over the noise of the shaking ship.

"We're caught in a tractor beam!" Leia exclaimed, desperately hanging on to her seat.

"It's pulling us in," Han warned. The Falcon's engines and deflector shields were ineffective for escaping the beam. By attempting to send the ship into full reverse, Han was only producing friction within the tractor beam, hence the shaking. The tractor beam also immobilized the Falcon's weapons, rendering them useless; any attempt to fire at the space station would likely cause the weapons themselves to blow up.

"Can't you do anything?" Leia begged, despite knowing the impossibility of her request. Once, just once, when she was fourteen, Leia had been captured by Imperial forces. The subsequent 'interrogation' had ingrained in her an intense determination to die before letting herself be captured again. Unlike her late friend Ezra, who had seemed to be captured on a weekly basis, always escaping after a maximum of several hours and usually causing severe damage to wherever he was being held at the time. He had practically made a game of it.

"There's nothin' I can do about it, Sunshine," Han said grimly with his jaw clenched tightly. "I'm in full power. I'm going to have to shut down. But they're not going to get me without a fight!" He powered down the engines and the Falcon stopped shaking.

"You can't win," Obi-Wan told Han. "But there are alternatives to fighting."

Leia wasn't sure what plan her teacher had in mind, but she hoped that he'd explain it quickly. That it would work was unquestionable in Leia's mind, however. The title of 'The Strategist' was gifted to Obi-Wan for a reason, and she had never seen him lose a fight.

She also hoped that they would be able to put it into play even faster. Because at the rate of speed the Falcon was being dragged towards the space station that was definitely the Death Star, time was not something they had.

* * *

The tractor beam pulled the Millennium Falcon straight toward the Death Star's equatorial trench. Along the trench's walls, laser turret cannons tracked the captured ship as it was drawn toward a docking bay. Because of the space station's enormous size, the docking bay, from a distance, resembled little more than a small slot that neighboured other slots within the trench. The bay was without visible doors and its interior appeared to be exposed to the vacuum of space, an illusion created by a transparent magnetic field that shielded and contained the docking bay's pressurized atmosphere.

Over an Imperial intercom, a voice announced, "Clear Bay Three Twenty-Seven. We are opening the magnetic field." The field opened, allowing the Falcon to pass through the slot-like doorway and hover into Docking Bay 327, a wide hangar with a gleaming black deck. After the tractor beam safely deposited the Falcon on the deck beside a deep elevator well, the Imperial soldiers prepared to enter the docking bay.

"To your stations!" A black-uniformed Imperial officer commanded a group of stormtroopers in a chamber that adjoined the hangar before he turned to another officer and ordered him to, "Come with me." The stormtroopers quickly took up position around the captured Corellian freighter.

"Close all outboard shields! Close all outboard shields!" An officer ordered, aiming his own weapon at the ship and reaching for his commlink.

Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader were still in the conference room when an intercom buzzed.

"Yes," Tarkin said, pushing a button to answer.

"We've captured a freighter entering the remains of the Alderaan system," an officer announced from the intercom. "It's markings match those of a ship that blasted its way out of Mos Eisley." He hesitated, knowing (as everyone in the galaxy did) of Vader's obsession with killing Kenobi, who consistently beat him when they battled in any way. "We believe that General Kenobi and his apprentice are aboard."

Vader rose, a strange note of sadistic glee in his mechanical voice as he spoke. "Kenobi has always been a compassionate fool. They must be trying to get the stolen plans to the Rebellion. The prince may yet be of some use to us."

After Vader was informed of the captured freighter's location, he swept out of the conference room and headed for Docking Bay 327.

' _This time,'_ he thought while he stalked through the halls, _"This time you will not escape me, Kenobi. this time you will die. And I will kill your Padawan as well, to ensure your suffering.'_

As heentered the hangar that contained the Millennium Falcon, a voice over the intercom was giving orders, "Unlock one, five, seven, and nine. Release charges." Vader walked past the elevator well and the stormtroopers who stood guard on the hangar floor, and approached the Falcon's lowered landing ramp. A grey-uniformed Imperial captain and a pair of stormtroopers stepped down the landing ramp nervously.

The captain stopped in front of Vader and spoke, shaking in fear. "There's no one on board, sir. According to the log, the crew abandoned ship right after take-off. It must be a decoy, sir. Several of the escape pods have been jettisoned."

"Did you find any droids?" Vader was terrifyingly calm as he raised a fist and crushed a nearby trooper's throat.

"No, sir," the captain reported, swallowing fearfully. "If there were any on board, they must also have been jettisoned."

"Send a scanning crew aboard," Vader ordered. "I want every part of the ship checked."

"Yes, sir." Vader looked up at the ship's hull and said, "I sense him," he murmured almost absently. "He is here, I know it."

Trusting the ship would be thoroughly checked, Vader turned fast and headed back to the conference room. Kenobi was on-board, and Vader would soon, _finally_ , have his revenge for Padmé's loss and his humiliation. Kenobi had nowhere to run now.

The Imperial captain turned to a stormtrooper and snapped sharply at him. "Get me a scanning crew in here on the double. I want every part of this ship checked!"

* * *

"This is ridiculous," Han said, squashed into a tiny smuggling compartment with his co-pilot and passengers. "Even if I could take off, I'd never get past the tractor beam."

"Leave that to me!" Obi-Wan said calmly. He had a focused look on his face that Leia recognized as his 'battle'-expression.

"Damn fool," Han muttered as he lifted himself up to sit at the edge of the compartment. "I knew you were going to say that!"

"Who's the more foolish?" Obi-Wan asked dryly. "The fool or the fool who follows him?"

Chewbacca raised his furry head up between Leia and Han. The Wookiee moaned with displeasure at the way he'd had to cram his large body into the compartment. Sympathetic, Han reached down and patted Chewbacca's head. Leia ignored them all, intently listening to the movements going on above them and holding her blaster at the ready with one hand while the other rested on her disguised sabre hilt.

The scanning crew consisted of two grey-uniformed men with a large box of equipment. When they arrived in the hangar, two stormtrooper squads were on guard outside the Falcon. A stormtrooper squad leader approached the scanning crew.

"The ship's all yours," he told them. "If the scanners pick up anything, report it immediately." Then the squad leader turned to the other troopers. "All right, let's go," he ordered.

Two remained stationed at the bottom of the Falcon's landing ramp while the other troopers filed out of the hangar. A moment after the scanning crew carried their equipment box up the ramp, there was a loud crashing sound from inside the ship. Both stormtroopers assumed the scanning crew had dropped the large box.

"Hey down there!" a man's voice called from inside the Falcon. "Could you give us a hand with this?" The two stormtroopers glanced at each other, then marched up the landing ramp. They had no idea that the scanning crew had already been knocked out, and that it had been the Falcon's captain who'd summoned them into the ship.

Han and Leia fired their blasters in unison. The stormtroopers never knew what hit them.

* * *

In the command office that overlooked Docking Bay 327, a black-uniformed gantry officer noticed the two stormtrooper guards were missing from their stations at the captured ship's landing ramp. He stepped to a comm console, flipped on the com-link, and spoke into it. "TK-four-two-one. Why aren't you at your post? TK-four-two-one, do you copy?"

When no answer came, the officer stepped away from the console to a window and peered through it, looking down at the freighter on the hangar deck. A single stormtrooper stepped down the landing ramp, then stopped and looked up in the direction of the command office window. The stormtrooper tapped at the side of his helmet. The gantry officer turned to his aide, who was seated before a wide control console.

"Take over," he said. "We've got a bad transmitter. I'll see what I can do."

The gantry officer walked to a closed doorway. He pressed a button, and the door slid up into the ceiling. The officer had expected to see an empty corridor that led to a lift tube that would carry him down to the hangar. To his astonishment, a hulking Wookiee filled the doorway with a stormtrooper at his side instead.

The Wookiee roared and lashed out at the officer, launching him across the room to smash into a row of barrel-shaped containers. The officer's aide spun in his seat and reached for his blaster, but the stormtrooper beside the Wookiee aimed his own blaster rifle at the aide and fired first.

The energy charge slammed into the aide's chest, and he collapsed to the office floor. Han pulled off his helmet as he and Chewbacca led Obi-Wan and the droids into the command office.

Leia, also disguised as a stormtrooper, had left the hangar deck quickly and came trotting up the corridor behind them. She had a hard time moving in her armour as she was several inches shorter than the average trooper.

Entering the command office, she shut the door behind herself, then pulled off her white helmet and glared at Han. "You know, between his howling and your blasting everything in sight, it's a wonder the whole station doesn't know we're here," she hissed.

"Bring them on!" Han retorted arrogantly, causing her glare to deepen. "I prefer a straight fight to all this sneaking around."

"You realize you're with the two most wanted people in the galaxy, right?" she snapped back. "They'll brand you a rebel too if they catch a look at your face."

Knowing, as everyone did, what the Empire did to rebels, Han paled and swallowed.

Meanwhile, the droids had moved over beside the aide's vacated seat at the control console.

"We found the computer outlet, madam, sirs," Threepio announced.

"Plug in," Obi-Wan ordered. "Artoo should be able to interpret the entire Imperial network."

Artoo extended a manipulator arm into the computer outlet and beeped to Threepio, who quickly translated. "He says he's found the main controls to the power beam that's holding the ship here. He'll try to make the precise location appear on the monitor."

Everyone looked to a small viewscreen that displayed a series of green-coloured readouts. R2 beeped again.

"The tractor beam is coupled to the main reactor in seven locations," Threepio told them. "A power loss at one of the terminals will allow the ship to leave."

Obi-Wan studied the schematics for the power generator terminal that was displayed on the viewscreen, then turned to the others. "I don't think you two can help. I must go alone."

"Master no!" Leia protested.

"Whatever you say," Han replied at the same time as Obi-Wan headed for the door. "I'll stick with Sunshine here."

"I should go with you," Leia insisted. "Vader is definitely here, and-"

"Be patient, Leia," Obi-Wan said, unmoved by her pleas. In truth, he simply wanted to keep her as safe as possible. That meant keeping her as far from Vader as he could manage. "Stay and watch over the droids."

"But he can—" She gestured at Han.

"They must be delivered safely or other star systems will suffer the same fate as Alderaan," the General interrupted. "Your destiny lies along a different path from mine." Unease flashed over Leia's expression at that. It sounded disturbingly like a goodbye. A permanent one at that.

He pressed a button on the doorway, sending the door up into the ceiling and turned back to face her, adding, "The Force will be with you…always!"

"May It be with you, as well," she whispered at him as he left the command office and moved down the corridor. She watched her mentor's departing form for a long moment, then reluctantly pressed the button and re-sealed the doorway.

Chewbacca tilted back his head and barked. "Boy, you said it, Chewie," Han agreed. He turned to Leia, but before he could speak, he was interrupted by Artoo, who was still plugged into the computer socket and suddenly began to whistle and beep a blue streak.

"What is it?" Leia demanded urgently, leaning closer to her droids.

"I'm afraid I'm not quite sure, madam," C-3PO said. "He says 'I found him' and keeps repeating 'He's here.'"

Leia's eyes widened in understanding. "The prince, he's here?"

"Prince?" Han echoed from beside Chewbacca on the other side of the command office.

"Well then where is he?" Leia pressed, ignoring Han.

"Prince?" Han repeated. "What's going on?"

R2 made whirring and clicking sounds as he scanned the computer then beeped to C-3PO.

"Level five. Detention block AA-twenty-three." But R2 wasn't finished, and emitted more beeps. The protocol droid's voice filled with concern as he reported, "I'm afraid he's scheduled to be terminated."

"Shavit!" Leia exclaimed. "We have to hurry."

"What are you talking about?" Han asked.

"The prince of Alderaan," she explained quickly. "He's about to be executed by the Empire for treason. I've got to go and save him!"

"No, look, don't get any funny ideas," Han warned. "The old man wants us to wait right here."

"But he didn't know the prince was here," Leia pointed out before turning back to R2-D2. "Can you find a way back into that detention block?"

"I'm not going anywhere," Han said, sitting down and put his feet up on the console.

Leia turned and slammed her hands down either side of him. She needed his help and she knew it. There were millions manning the station, and Leia needed someone to watch her back when she was saving the prince. Han and Chewie were the only ones available to do so.

"You said you were going to impress me, right?" She demanded, continuing before he could answer her. "Well cool tricks and fancy flying doesn't impress me. People doing the right thing, even though it's hard, that's what impresses me. Now either help me, or call the damn troopers in here to arrest me." She gave a sharp smile filled with teeth. "Maybe they'll give you the bounty on head before they execute you for helping me get onboard in the first place." Her expression softened. "I need your help Han. Please."

Han stared at her for a minute, Qi'ra's words echoing in his head. _'You're a good man, Han.'_ he clenched his jaw and gave a curt nod. "Fine," he agreed, Leia relaxing a fraction, relief in her eyes. "What's your plan?"

Leia considered that for a moment, wondering how far she and Han might get in their stormtrooper disguises when they didn't know the layout of the station, then looked at Chewbacca and clicked her fingers as an idea came to her.

"Threepio, hand me those binders there, will you?"

The protocol droid picked up a pair of metal binders that happened to be lying helpfully on the control console and gave them to Leia.

"Okay." Leia carefully held out the binders as she approached Chewbacca. "Now, I'm going to put these on you." Chewbacca roared sharply and Leia stumbled backward. She was no fool, and only suicidal fools pissed off a Wookiee. She hastily handed the binders to Han and ordered him to do it instead.

"Don't worry, Chewie," Han soothed as he carried the binders to the Wookiee. "I think I know what she has in mind." He placed the binders over the Wookiee's thick wrists but didn't lock them.

Leia then handed a small comlink transmitter over to Threepio. Then the two humans picked up their helmets and headed for the door with Chewbacca. "Er, Mistress Leia, ma'am!" Threepio called after them nervously. "Pardon me for asking… but…what should Artoo-Detoo and I do if we're discovered here?"

"Lock the door!" Leia instructed. "Actually, you should probably do that anyway."

"And hope they don't have blasters," Han added.

"That isn't very reassuring," C-3PO said, clapping his hand down upon R2-D2's domed head as the two men and the Wookiee left the room.


	8. Minds Meeting

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. Thanks to everyone for reviewing/following/favouriting/ext.**

 **Chapter Eight**

**A Meeting of the Minds**

Leia was a fighter pilot, and General Kenobi's protegée. Her expertise was in flying, negotiation and strategy. They had originally been on Tatooine to try and convince the Hutts to agree to smuggle supplies to the Rebellion.

But one thing that she _wasn't_ was a good actress. Missions like this, involving infiltration and subterfuge, were not her specialty. Pooja worked in Intelligence, and Ezra had seemed to sneak into various bases on a weekly basis, but Leia wasn't the type.

She tried to hide her discomfort as she and Han marched with Chewie through the corridors of the Death Star, but there was no getting around the fact that she was several inches too short to be a normal stormtrooper and the effect was even worse when she stood next to Han. Because of that, they'd agreed that Han would walk slightly ahead and to the right of Chewbacca while Leia would stay close to Chewbacca's left side.

It was their hope that any casual passer-by would notice the towering Wookiee, not the height of the stormtrooper beside him. This arrangement also was a bit of a relief to Leia, who was struggling to see through the lenses of her oversized helmet. The way she gripped the Wookiee's elbow might have looked like she was guiding a bound captive through the corridor, but in fact, Chewbacca was guiding her.

They were heading for a lift tube that would carry them to level five when Chewbacca saw a small MSE-6 droid move toward them. The box-shaped droid travelled on four wheels and was used to deliver orders and documents.

Chewbacca roared at the droid for no other reason than he felt like it. The droid shrieked and raced away from him. Chewbacca gave a bark of laughter, ignoring Leia's soft chide.

They continued on to a row of lifts, and passed various other troopers, bureaucrats, and droids who were also walking through the corridor. As expected, only Chewbacca drew any stares.

"I can't see a thing in this helmet," Leia muttered softly to her companions as they waited for the lift to arrive. She was genuinely worried about it, despite knowing logically that the Force would guide her, as it had Kanan after he was blinded. It still didn't stop the worry she felt for everything. This mission was _important_. Luke Organa _had to_ survive, or something terrible was going to happen.

The lift opened and they stepped in. A grey-uniformed bureaucrat attempted to follow them in, but Han held up a cautioning hand to discourage him.

"This isn't going to work," Han said as he pressed the button for the fifth floor.

"Of course it will," Leia forced herself to sound confident. "I'll use the Force to mind trick the guards. Ezra did this sort of stuff all the time."

"Ezra, like Ezra Bridger," Han confirmed with a quirk of an eyebrow. She nodded in reply. "His bounty disappeared just after that battle on Lothal," Han said carefully.

He wasn't a bounty hunter, but he kept an eye on the lists, like everyone else in the galaxy did. Until Lothal, Kanan Jarrus, a.k.a Caleb Dume and his Padawan Ezra Bridger had been the second and fourth most wanted people in the galaxy after Ahsoka Tano's death. Their bounties disappearing had said everything it needed to when it came to the two's fates.

Leia's jaw clenched as she tightened her grip on her blaster. "He was a friend," she told them, a hollow note in her voice. He had been more than that of course, no one else understood the pressure they were both under. Not even Obi-Wan and Kanan could fully get how it felt to be a Jedi Padawan in a galaxy ruled by the Sith. No one other than Ezra understood how hard it was to obey the Code, and yet be unable to stop hating the Empire. To fear what would happen if they _did_ stop hating its' atrocities.

Under the circumstances, it wasn't a surprise to anyone that the two of them had entered a relationship with each other. He had been her first everything. And now he was gone. Sabine clung to the fact that his body had never been found, but Leia knew the truth in the Force. Ezra was gone, and he was never coming back. Dead or not.

Han stayed silent, knowing that any words he could say would be useless to comfort her. Instead they waited quietly to arrive at the detention level.

They'd been expecting the door to open in front of them, and therefore they were surprised when they heard it open from behind. They turned and stepped into detention block AA-23.

An Imperial lieutenant stood behind a semi-circular control station of the detention security area. Behind him, two black-uniformed soldiers stood against a wall, and a short flight of steps led up to a cell corridor, where a third soldier appeared to be inspecting cell doors.

The lieutenant at the control station sneered at the sight of Chewbacca. "Where are you taking this…thing?" he asked authoritatively.

"Prisoner transfer from Cell Block one-one-three-eight," Leia replied smoothly, waiting for her chance. She couldn't use a mind trick, because they were too separate from each other. Once they were close enough, she would easily be able to put them to sleep.

"I wasn't notified," the lieutenant replied. "I'll have to clear it." He signalled to the two nearby guards. They both drew their blasters, then one guard approached Chewbacca. Chewbacca roared and lashed out with one mighty hand, smashing the guard with enough strength to launch him off his feet.

Then came total chaos. "Look out! He's loose!" Han shouted and tossed his blaster rifle to Chewbacca.

"He's going to pull us apart!" Leia cried as she performed a split-kick and knocked two of the troopers unconscious. Chewbacca started shooting at the security camera eyes and laser gate controls. Laserbolts pinged and exploded all over the room.

"Go get him!" Han shouted and grabbed a blaster from a fallen guard. The lieutenant finally realized that Han and Leia weren't real stormtroopers and reached for his own blaster. Han quickly downed him with a shot to the head. Then he, Leia, and Chewbacca kept blasting until every security sensor was a shattered mess.

The lieutenant had collapsed in a dead heap on top of his control station, where an alarm was beeping wildly. While Chewbacca clutched his Imperial blaster rifle and watched the lift tube doors, Leia hurried into the control station and pulled the lieutenant's body aside, dumping it on the floor unceremoniously.

"We've got to find out which cell this prince of yours is in," Han pointed out as he rushed up to stand beside her. He quickly scanned a data screen.

"Here it is…twenty-one-eighty-seven," he announced after a moment of perusing the screen. "You go and get him. I'll hold them here."

"Thanks," Leia replied before she ran up the steps and entered the detention corridor.

Han removed his stormtrooper helmet and placed it beside his blaster rifle on the console. Then he switched off the beeping alarm, flicked on the com-link system, and said in a calm tone, "Everything's under control. Situation normal."

"What happened?" a voice answered.

"Uh…we had a slight weapons malfunction," Han lied, trying to sound official. "But, uh, everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?" He winced in embarrassment at the lameness of his own words.

"We're sending a squad up," said the voice from the intercom.

Han's eyes widened in panic at that. "Uh, uh, negative, negative," He said hastily. "We have a reactor leak here now. Give us a few minutes to lock it down. Large leak…very dangerous."

"Who is this?" came the intercom voice. "What's your operating number?" Han briefly considered answering, then picked up the blaster rifle, aimed it at the com-link system, and fired at point-blank range, shattering the system.

"Boring conversation anyway," he muttered, then turned to look down the detention corridor and shouted, "Leia, you gotta hurry up! We're about to have company!"

Leia heard, cursed and ran faster past the recessed doorways that lined the corridor. When she found cell 2187, she slapped a button on the wall and the cell door slid up. And then she saw him.

Luke was pretending to sleep on the bare metal slab that served as a bed. He was wearing the same white clothes that he'd worn when his ship was captured, but now there was a dark burn stain on his chest from the interrogation droid's shock-prod. He forced himself not to show his fear when he heard the door open.

Had they come to execute him? Or worse, had they discovered his ruse and planned to torture him some more in another attempt to discover the base's location? If they had, he would bite through his tongue and kill himself, Luke decided. It had taken everything in him to resist the agony of the torture, and to shield his precious knowledge from Vader's vicious mind rape. He wouldn't let himself betray the Rebellion, but he doubted his ability to stay silent if the pain re-started.

' _I_ _ **know**_ _him,'_ Leia thought as she stepped into the room.

Luke put on a façade of calmness as he opened his eyes and lifted himself upright on the hard, metal bench.

He raised his eyebrows at the sight of the trooper before him, who seemed to be going for their helmet's clasps.

"Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" he asked just as Leia clicked the two clasps and pulled it off to reveal her face to the prince. Her infinity-styled bun was still held in pristine condition, a result of a truly ridiculous amount of colourless pins.

But to the women of Naboo, as to the women of Alderaan, hair was the most important feature they had. And although Leia had fled her homeplanet as a child, Sola had still instilled the traditions and culture into her youngest child's very bones.

"I'm Commander Leia Naberrie of the Alliance," she introduced herself. "I'm here to rescue you."

"Commander Naberrie!" Luke exclaimed, leaping to his feet, only to stumble back down from pain as a current of electricity suddenly ran through his body. There was an electrified chain wrapped around his left ankle, the Empire's attempt to stop prisoners from escaping.

"I'm stuck," he told her as she hastened forward and kneeled down on one knee to examine it. "Do you have a key or a lockpick?"

"I don't need one," Leia smiled, reaching out to hover her hand over the chain. She closed her eyes for a moment to focus. The glowing wire suddenly snapped off, though the anklet itself remained around his ankle. Leia stood quickly.

"I know running with it still on isn't ideal, but-" she began. Luke waved her off and started for the door again, ignoring the pain running through his body from his earlier 'interrogation'.

"I'm fine," he said quickly. "Did you and General Kenobi get my droid? Is he here?"

"Yes, and yes," she answered, stripping off her armour as she walked. She was unhooking her concealed sabre as they arrived back at the station where Han and Chewbacca were waiting tensely for them.

* * *

Tarkin sat at the far end of the round table in the conference room. Vader stood at the other end.

"He is here," Vader growled.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi here!" Tarkin scoffed. "What makes you think so?"

"A tremor in the Force. One that I only feel when I am near my old Master."

"I doubt that even Kenobi would be so audacious as to attempt to infiltrate this station," Tarkin answered with all the confidence of someone who believes that he was invincible.

"Don't underestimate the Force," Vader replied. "Or Kenobi and his loyalty. He and Bail Organa were trapped together on a Sith planet named Zigoola during the early part of the Clone Wars. Organa saved Kenobi's life, and became one of his most trusted friends. Organa is also the one who helped him after the initial Purges, I am certain of it. Kenobi would certainly rush to save Organa's only son upon realizing his life was in danger."

"The Jedi are extinct," Tarkin insisted stubbornly. "Their fire has gone out of the universe. Only Kenobi and his apprentice remain, now that Jarrus, Tano and Bridger are all dead. You, my friend, are all that's left of their religion."

A signal chimed from the comlink at the console in front of Tarkin's seat.

"Yes," Tarkin pressed the button to answer it.

We have an emergency alert in detention block AA-twenty-three," the caller informed them briskly in the unemotional tone expected of an Imperial officer.

"The prince!" Tarkin cried, rising from his seat quickly. "Put all sections on alert!"

"Obi-Wan _is_ here," Vader stated. "The Force is with him."

"If you're right, then he must not be allowed to escape."

"Escape is not in his plan." Before turning for the door, Vader added knowingly, "I must face him alone."

* * *

Han and Chewbacca were still in the detention security area when they heard an ominous buzzing sound from the lift tube doors. The Wookiee growled at the noise.

"Get behind me!" Han shouted urgently to his friend. "Get behind me!"

Chewbacca jumped away from the lift tubes as an explosion ripped a large hole through one door. The hole's edges were still smouldering as the first stormtrooper stepped through.

Han aimed and fired. The trooper fell, and another trooper pushed his way through the hole, followed by another. The two smugglers turned and ran for the detention corridor.

Behind them, one stormtrooper stopped the others. "Off to your left," he ordered. "They went down in the cell bay."

The troopers fired their blasters down the length of the detention corridor. Inside the corridor, laserbolts whizzed past Luke and Leia. Because the cell doorways were recessed, the surrounding metal frames served as shallow protective alcoves. As the two rebels instinctively ducked against a door to avoid being hit, Han and Chewbacca came pounding up the corridor and threw themselves into neighbouring doorways.

"Can't get out that way," Han shouted as he glanced back down the corridor to the security area.

"Looks like you managed to cut off our only escape route," Luke snapped at him furiously.

"Maybe you'd like it back in your cell, Your Highness," Han retorted sharply.

"Knock it off, both of you!" Leia yelled, firing several blasts down the corridor and forcing herself to think. This, outright battle with clear lines of who was an enemy and no lying, was much more familiar to her than espionage.

She clicked her fingers triumphantly as she remembered that the two droids were still back at the command office that overlooked the docking bay.

"3PO! 3PO!" she called into her com-link urgently.

"Yes, Madam?" 3PO answered politely.

"Are there any other ways out of the cell bay?" she demanded urgently. "We've been cut off from the doors!"

More laserbolts zinged through the corridor, muffling 3PO's reply.

"What was that?" She shouted into the com, "I didn't copy!"

"I said all systems have been alerted to your presence, Madam," C-3PO repeated helpfully. "The main entrance seems to be the only way in or out; all other information on your level is restricted."

Just then, the droid heard someone banging on the command office's door. From the other side of the door, a stormtrooper demanded, "Open up in there! Open up in there!"

"Oh, no!" C-3PO cried.

Back at the detention cell corridor, Leia told the others the bad news: "There isn't any other way out."

More laserfire sailed through the corridor, some blasts impacting dangerously close to Luke and his allies. Han edged out from his alcove and fired back at the stormtroopers. "I can't hold them off forever!" he warned. "Now what?"

"This is some rescue," Luke said sarcastically. "When you came in here, didn't you have a plan for getting out?"

Han gestured to Leia. "She's the brains, Your Worshipfulness."

"I was trusting the Force," Leia snapped. She was unsurprised by the looks of incredulity that the statement got her, but it was the complete truth. Leia, for all her struggles with her life, had total faith in the Force. She considered it a great shame that everyone else (save Obi-Wan) didn't share that belief. She blamed the Empire for it.

And anyway, her original plan involved the subtle mind trick, which would have let them sneak in and out of the detention block without being noticed. That, of course, was now off the table. Too many people scattered around chaotically to mind trick everyone at once.

Luke huffed and grabbed Leia's blaster rifle, using it to fire at a small grate in the wall next to Han. The blast tore a hole through the mesh, and Han felt the force of the explosion against the leggings of his stormtrooper armour.

"What the hell are you doing?" Han shouted.

"Somebody has to save our skins," Luke snapped back, then offered Leia's rifle back. She waved him off, flicking on her green sabre.

"Into the garbage chute, flyboy," Luke ordered right before he jumped through the narrow opening he'd created in the grate. Leia followed a second later while Chewbacca and Han exchanged amazed glances. Neither had expected a prince to be so resourceful, let alone be bold enough to leap into a garbage chute.

Chewbacca moved toward the shattered grate, then recoiled from it and yowled.

"Get in there, you big furry oaf!" Han yelled at him. "I don't care what you smell! Get in there and don't worry about it." He gave Chewbacca a big kick, and the Wookiee disappeared into the tiny opening. He turned and fired off several more shots before he also jumped through the hole.

He held his blaster forward as he dived into the chute, screaming all the way down. Like the others who'd preceded him, he landed in a deep pile of garbage.

The garbage room was a metal-walled chamber that contained heaps of trash, everything from broken metal beams and bits of plastic scrap to organic waste. A pool of foul-smelling muck completely covered the floor.

Luke's white suit and Luke's leggings were already covered with grime, and Chewbacca's fur was matted with swill.

"The garbage chute was a really wonderful idea," Han scoffed at Luke. "What an incredible smell you've discovered!"

Seeing Chewbacca trying to open a metal hatch, Han drew his blaster. "Let's get out of here!" he said. "Get away from there."

"No!" Leia cried. "Wait!"

She was too late. Han fired at the hatch, and the laserbolt ricocheted wildly around the metal-walled chamber. Everyone dived for cover until the fired bolt's charge ended in a small explosion that didn't even dent the metal wall.

"Will you forget it?" She shouted to Han. "Luke already tried that. It's magnetically sealed," she added, gesturing at the hatch.

"Put that thing away!" Luke snapped at him. "You're going to get us all killed."

"Absolutely, Your Worship," Han sneered back. "Look, I had everything under control until you led us down here. You know, it's not going to take them long to figure out what happened to us."

"It could be worse," Luke claimed.

Unexpectedly, a loud, inhuman moan worked its way up from the mucky pool. The moan echoed off the garbage room walls. Chewbacca turned to a wall and cowered. Despite the hazard posed by the magnetically sealed walls, Luke and Han lifted their blasters, while Leia raised her lightsabre in a Form VI guard position.

"Never say things can get worse," she muttered. "Because they always will."

She jumped several feet in the air a second later. "There's something alive in here!"

"That's your imagination," Han insisted, aiming at the water nervously.

"Something just moved past my leg!" She reported, then glimpsed a thick, serpentlike body twist through the muck.

"Look!" Leia warned, pointing at it. "Did you see that?"

"What?" Han asked.

They all looked down around their feet. No one saw the single eyestalk that rose like a periscope from the muck. The eye quickly surveyed the four figures before it re-submerged itself.

Only her honed reflexes save her when the thing tried to drag her underwater. Thankfully, Leia managed to jump into the air again. She did an Ataru flip, slashing at the same, and slashed the beast in half as it went to attack a second time.

"Shavit," Han breathed shakily. "What was that?"

"I think that it was a dianoga," Leia answered breathlessly. "It's a seven-tentacled omnivorous predator. It must have wound up on the Death Star by accident. They're a species indigenous to the planet Felucia. I saw one once before, when the refugee camp was based there."

Luke opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a groaning sound. The four looked around worriedly.

"What was that?" he demanded, changing his planned sentence at the sound.

"I don't know," Leia replied worriedly, scanning the room tensely.

"I got a bad feeling about this," Han announced.

The walls rumbled again, but this time they pushed inward.

"This room is a trash _compactor_!" Leia cried in realization.

"Don't just stand there," Luke ordered Han. "Try and brace it with something. Help me!" They reached for discarded metal beams and tubelike poles, then angled them between the closing walls. Because all the garbage kept shifting and pushing up around them, it was difficult work. Despite their efforts, the poles snapped and the beams bent, and the walls continued to close in.

"Wait a minute!" Leia cried. She closed her eyes and flung out her arms to either side, concentrating intently. The walls slowed, but continued to move towards each other. She frowned harder, and finally managed to stall the walls.

"Find a way out!" she ordered through gritted teeth. " _Now_!"

Han reached over and grabbed her com-link. "Oi! Goldenrod, 3PO! Come in!" He gave them a helpless, panicked look. "He's not answering!"


	9. Trash Compactor

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.**

 **Chapter Nine**

**The Trash Compactor**

C3PO had accidentally left his com-link transmitter on top of a computer console in the command office for Docking Bay 327, which still contained the Millennium Falcon.

Fortunately, when the stormtroopers finally shattered the lock and burst into the office, their attention was immediately drawn to the motionless bodies of the gantry officer and his aide lying on the floor, and they didn't notice the com-link transmitter.

The stormtrooper squad leader gestured at the abandoned computer station. "Take over!" he ordered a trooper before directing another trooper's attention to the gantry officer's body with a sharp "See to him!"

Glancing around, a closed door caught his eye. He pointed at it with his rifle. "Look, there!" He kept his blaster trained on it as a trooper walked over to it warily.

The trooper pushed a button and the supply cabinet slid open, revealing the two droids. Although neither looked like Imperial droids, the stormtroopers still had no idea that the droids were intruders who had deliberately locked themselves inside the closet.

"They're madmen!" Threepio exclaimed waving his hands wildly. "They're heading for the prison level. If you hurry, you might catch them."

The protocol droid knew that Leia and the others had already escaped from the prison level, and hoped his ruse would distract the stormtroopers. At the droid's words the leader turned to his troopers. "Follow me!" He told them, before he turned to another trooper and ordered, "You stand guard."

The squad leader and five troopers ran out of the command office.

"Come on!" C-3PO whispered to R2, but when they moved away from the supply cabinet, the remaining trooper raised his blaster rifle at them.

Thinking fast, C-3PO faced the trooper, "Oh!" he cried piteously. "All this excitement has overrun the circuits in my counterpart here. If you don't mind, I'd like to take him down to maintenance."

"All right," the trooper agreed with a nod. The two droids hurried out of the office as quick as they could.

Chewbacca whined and pushed against a wall with his large paws. Han and Luke worked together, trying to brace the walls while Leia had fallen to one knee, her arms trembling in agony as she tried to keep the walls in place. All around them, garbage was snapping and popping as it was pushed together.

Leia began to slip down into the trash-filled water. Han placed his hands on her hips and lifted her up, holding her above the water.

"Thanks," she mumbled. He didn't reply, absently thinking that it was a good thing that she was so slim and light, otherwise he wouldn't be able to hold her up.

"Get to the top!" Han called to Luke, who was also slipping, but holding his own.

"I can't," he replied through gritted teeth, but managed with Chewie's help. "Thanks," he repeated Leia's earlier comment.

"Try 3PO again," Leia gasped out as the walls managed to jerk closer together again. Han nodded curtly, lifting the com up to his lips again while supporting Leia with his other arm, wrapped securely around her hips.

"3PO! Hey, Goldenrod! Where are you?"

* * *

After eluding the stormtroopers in the command office, Artoo and Threepio returned to Docking Bay 327, where they took protective cover behind some barrels. Threepio moved cautiously to check and see if the Millennium Falcon still resting on the hangar deck. His metal shoulders slumped in relief when he realized that it hadn't moved.

A group of stormtroopers exited the Falcon, carrying the bodies of the scanning crew and the two troopers who'd unknowingly donated their armour to Leia and Han. Five other troopers remained on guard beside the Falcon's landing ramp.

But, Threepio noticed with renewed dismay, there was no sign of his mistress and her companions.

He turned to Artoo, who stood beside a computer service panel that was embedded in a wall. "They aren't here!" the golden droid announced in distress. "Something must have happened to them." He gestured at the service panel. "See if they've been captured," he urged.

Artoo obediently extended his computer interface arm and carefully plugged it into the service panel's socket. A complex array of electronic sounds spewed from his head.

"Hurry!" Threepio insisted, filled with worry for both himself and his mistress.

* * *

In the garbage room, Leia was struggling to keep the walls in place, and they had moved inwards twice. The group struggled to avoid being crushed as they climbed the shifting heaps of trash, Leia being hauled by Han.

"One thing's for sure," Han muttered. "We're all going to be a lot thinner!"

"Shut up, I'm trying!" Leia snapped back.

Luke yelped as he lost his footing, before Han could reply.

"Get on top of it!" Han yelled at him.

"I'm trying!" Luke shouted back.

Leia cursed as the walls again thudded closer. According to Obi-Wan, there was no difference in the Force between an X-Wing and a feather, but Leia's mind disagreed.

Meanwhile, R2 searched the Death Star's computer banks but found no record of any intruders being captured since the Falcon had arrived in Docking Bay 327. The astromech rotated his dome and beeped his report to his companion.

"Thank goodness they haven't found them!" Threepio cried. "Where could they be?" He added, glancing back at the Falcon.

Artoo noticed the device that Threepio had regained, then beeped and whistled frantically.

"Use the comlink?" Threepio repeated in confusion, then realized he was still holding the transmitter. "Oh, my! I forgot…I turned it off!"

He hastily activated the comlink. "Are you there, madam?"

"Goldenrod!" Han answered.

"Where's Mistress Leia?" Threepio asked. "We've had some problems—"

"Will you shut up and listen to me," Han snapped. "Shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level, will you? Do you copy? Shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level. Now!"

Inside the garbage room, the walls didn't stop moving, and Leia was worn out, her arms having fallen to her sides from exhaustion. There were only seconds left before they'd meet. Fearing the droids wouldn't obey anyone other than their owner, Leia grabbed the com-link and repeated Han's command urgently.

"Shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level!" Artoo beeped a question to Threepio.

"No," Threepio replied. "Shut them all down! Hurry!"

R2's extension arm twisted in the computer socket, then he and 3PO listened to the comlink. They'd hoped to hear that all was well, but instead, the droids heard their allies screaming. Holding the comlink away from his head, C-3PO looked at R2.

"Listen to them!" He cried. "They're dying, Artoo-Detoo!"

Hearing more screams, C-3PO said mournfully, "Curse my metal body! I wasn't fast enough. It's all my fault! My poor mistress!"

But then, from the com-link, Leia spoke."C-3PO, we're all right!"

Inside the narrow confines of the garbage room, the hollering continued, not because of injury but from the sheer joy that everyone was still alive and unharmed.

"We're all right," Leia repeated. "You did great."

Chewbacca howled with relief. Despite their mutual animosity, Han and Luke pounded each others' backs. Glancing around with a smile, Leia spotted a hatch against the far wall. She lifted her com-link back up to her mouth again.

"Hey…hey, open the pressure maintenance hatch on unit number…"

She turned to Han. "Where are we?" She asked him. Han checked numbers that were etched on the hatch and read them aloud, "Three-two-six-three-eight-two-seven."

C-3PO made sure R2-D2 heard the numbers correctly, and the astromech opened the hatch. Leia, re-igniting her lightsabre, took the lead.

* * *

Darth Vader may have sensed Obi-Wan's presence on the Death Star, but not a single Imperial officer, stormtrooper, or droid noticed Obi-Wan's stealthy movement through the corridors as he made his way to the nearest generator trench. Old as he was, Obi-Wan was as good an operative as he'd been during the Clone Wars.

The Resistance General stepped through a doorway and surveyed the trench. It was formed by two incredibly steep facing walls, and the air between them was taut with high voltage electricity.

A 1.5-meter-wide bridge without guardrails spanned the trench, and an even more narrow footbridge, only 25 centimetres wide, and also without guardrails, extended from the bridge's side to wrap around a power terminal. The power terminal itself stood atop a cylindrical generator tower.

From the schematics that Artoo had conjured up back at the command station, Obi-Wan knew he'd have to step onto the footbridge to reach the generator's control panels, and that the generator tower was thirty-five kilometres tall.

Even for a Jedi Knight, that was a long way down.

Intently focused on his mission and fearless of the dizzying height, Obi-Wan moved across the bridge, then onto the footbridge. He edged carefully around the power terminal until he could reach the generator controls. He pressed one lever, then edged farther around the terminal until he found the controls for the tractor beam power coupling.


	10. Meeting Destiny

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.**

 **Chapter Ten**

**Meeting Destiny**

The hatch for trash compactor 32-6-3827 adjoined a dusty, unused hallway. Han removed his stormtrooper armour but kept the trooper's white utility belt, which carried blaster power cell containers, a tool kit, and a grappling hook attached to a fibre-cord reel.

Chewbacca sat outside the open hatch and tried to brush the grime from his matted fur while Leia redid the pins that held her hair in place, muttering the Jedi Code under her breath to help herself calm down.

"Well, let's get moving!" Luke urged after he had adjusted his clothes as best he could.

A loud, angry moan drifted out from the open hatch. Evidently, the dianoga hadn't been alone in the garbage room and its' companion was now awake.

The noise caused Chewbacca to jump and run away from the hatch.

"Where are you going?" Han said, glaring at the Wookiee. Embarrassed by his co-pilot's behaviour, Han turned toward the hatch and raised his blaster.

"No, wait," Leia cried urgently when she turned around and spotted the raised weapon. "They'll hear!"

Her warning came too late. Han fired the blaster at the hatch, and the noise echoed throughout the hallway. Disgusted by Han's thoughtless action, Luke shook his head.

"Come here, you big coward!" Han called to the Wookiee, who stood trembling beside a nearby stack of barrels. "Chewie! Come here!"

Luke fixed his furious gaze on Han. "Listen," he snapped. I don't know who you are or where you came from, but from now on, you do as I tell you. Okay?"

"Actually," Leia intervened, her hidden fire rising again, as Han opened his mouth to retort furiously. She crossed her arms and gave a steady, experience-weighted, look to her companions. "I think that _I_ am the only one capable of being in command of this mission, seeing as both of you are too busy comparing testosterone levels to try and get us out of here alive!"

The two men spluttered at the accusation, while Leia stalked past them, lightsabre lifted but unignited. She patted Chewie reassuringly on the arm as she walked by, and he grunted fondly at her, hopping to follow her. The two men glared at each other, but said nothing. The slight flushes in their cheeks revealed their embarrassment at being scolded by the young woman.

* * *

Obi-Wan was preparing to remove himself from the footbridge when he heard footsteps approaching. He quickly readjusted a lever on the power terminal so any passers-by wouldn't notice his sabotage, then braced his body against the terminal, concealing himself from the bridge that spanned the trench.

A detachment of stormtroopers entered through a doorway and stepped onto the bridge. "Give me regular reports, please," the CO ordered his men.

Obi-Wan felt a jolt of surprise that there was in fact, an Imperial that knew how to be polite to those below him. The Jedi had assumed that Kallus was the only one, and he had defected, so it was different. But perhaps this trooper was newly-promoted and had yet to gain the tyrannical, cut-throat attitude that was so prevalent among the upper Imperial ranks.

"Right," replied one trooper. The two troopers remained near the doorway by which they'd arrived while the other troopers marched across the bridge and through the facing doorway. Obi-Wan intended to exit the trench by the same route. As he readjusted the lever to shut down the tractor beam, he overheard the nearby troopers speaking.

"Do you know what's going on?" asked the first trooper.

"Maybe it's another drill," the second replied with a casual shrug.

Obi-Wan moved cautiously on the footbridge, cursing his aching joints, and peered around the power terminal. The two troopers were still near the far doorway, facing each other.

The troopers had changed the subject, evidently confident in the Death Star's security. Arrogant, but that was typical for Imperials.

"Have you seen that new BT-sixteen?" The first trooper asked. His companion nodded, rifle held loosely in his arms.

"Yeah, some of the other guys were telling me about it. They say it's quite a thing to—"

Obi-Wan flexed his fingers and gestured at the two troopers. Both troopers suddenly heard, or thought that they heard, a muffled explosion from the doorway behind them, and turned away from the power terminal.

"What was that?" asked the second trooper.

"That's nothing," the first trooper answered dismissively when he saw and heard nothing else. "Top gassing. Don't worry about it."

Neither noticed the top most wanted fugitive in the galaxy as he stepped softly onto the bridge and exited the generator trench.

* * *

Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewbacca entered a corridor on the same level as the command office for Docking Bay 327. Arriving at a window that overlooked the hangar, Han gazed down at the _Millennium Falcon_ and pointed at it. "There she is." He turned to Leia. "So, what's the plan, Firecracker? More, having faith in the Force?"

Leia ignored the hint of mocking that laced his tone and instead looked through the window. She counted five stormtrooper sentries outside the _Falcon._ Pursing her lips, she narrowed her eyes thoughtfully.

She had faith in her ability to deal with them all single-handedly, she had faced much worse odds before after all, but not without a lot of noise. That would draw more enemies, and Leia could sense Vader onboard, though she'd been trying to ignore it. It made her remember Malachor, and the awful battle.

Her, Ezra, their Masters and Ahsoka against two Inquisitors, Vader and Maul. Ahsoka had been lost, Kanan had lost his sight, Obi-Wan spent three days in a healing trance that everyone feared he wouldn't wake from, and both Ezra and Leia had been traumatized.

Years later, and Leia still had nightmares about the crippling coldness that radiated from the Sith Lord. Maul had been a fraction of his strength, an insect compared to Vader's raw power. No, fighting would draw Vader to them, and that wasn't an option they would survive. Not without Obi-Wan returning to save them, and they couldn't rely on that. She needed another plan.

Leia switched on her com-link and raised it to her mouth. "See-Threepio, do you copy?"

"Yes, madam," C-3PO answered.

"Are you safe?" Leia asked. She was a firm believer that droids could have as much personality, if not more than, a sentient and she treated them as such. They thought, therefore they lived. She had read that somewhere.

"For the moment," he replied. "We're in the main hangar across from the ship."

"We're right above you," she told him. "Stand by."

Luke tugged at Han's sleeve and gestured at the Falcon. "You came in that thing?" he said incredulously. "You're braver than I thought."

"Nice!" Han scoffed. He was thoroughly exasperated and stressed out by now. How had impressing a pretty girl turned into this? Surely he wasn't _that_ bad a person as to deserve this happening to him?

"Come on!" Leia urged, having decided to sneak down to the hanger and use the Force to knock the troopers unconscious.

They walked fast down a hallway, making their way to the lift tube that would take them to the lower level. Han made sweeping movements with his blaster rifle, ready to fire at the first sign of trouble. But as the group rounded a corner, even Han was surprised to run straight into seven approaching stormtroopers.

"It's them!" shouted the squad leader. "Blast them!" Han's blaster rifle was already levelled at the squad leader, and Han didn't hesitate to fire. The blast knocked the squad leader off his feet and the six remaining troopers stumbled back. Without any plan but to knock down every Imperial soldier in sight, Han fired again and charged the startled troopers, who turned and ran back up the hallway.

As Han chased and fired after the troopers, he shouted to his allies over his shoulder, "Get back to the ship!"

"Where are you going?" Leia yelled as Chewbacca ran after Han. "Come back!" She turned to Luke with a frustrated expression. "If he hadn't been so reckless," she huffed. "I could've used the Force or just deflected their blasts with my sabre! We wouldn't have gotten split up then."

"He certainly has courage," Luke shrugged.

"What good will it do us if he gets himself killed?" Leia retorted, hoping her worry for the smuggler and his Wookiee friend wasn't obvious. She grabbed Luke's hand, feeling a Force bond suddenly spring into place as she did so. Thankfully, she was trained well enough that she was able to both put her emotions about it aside and block off their thoughts in a few seconds.

"Come on!" She urged him. They ran off in the other direction down the hallway as quick as they could, Leia casting a brief glance back in the direction her other companions had gone down.

* * *

Hollering and firing his blaster rifle, Han chased the stormtroopers through a long sub-hallway. At the end of the sub-hallway, the troopers were forced to turn left around a corner. Not thinking about where the turn might lead, Han ran after the troopers and entered a TIE fighter hangar. He stopped dead in his tracks at the sight that greeted him.

The hangar was filled with hundreds of stormtroopers, and it appeared that Han had interrupted their weapons drill. The stormtroopers he'd been chasing now stopped and turned with their blasters raised. The other troopers all looked his way.

Han squeezed off a shot to fell one more trooper, then turned around and ran for his life.

Chewbacca had been trying to catch up with Han when he heard the hail of blasterfire up ahead, then saw Han come racing back toward him. A hail of laserbolts slammed into the wall behind Han as he ran past. Quickly sizing up the situation, the Wookiee turned and ran even faster after Han.

* * *

Before Luke and Leia could reach the hangar that contained the Millennium Falcon, they were spotted by yet another squad of stormtroopers. Leia deflected the wildly flying bolts away as best she could, felling an enemy with almost every shot as she and Luke rushed down a narrow sub-hallway, trying to elude the troopers who fired at them from behind.

The sub-hallway ended at a short ramp that led up to an open doorway. Luke and Leia raced up the ramp and were through the doorway before they realized the floor ended at an enormous air shaft. Luke nearly lost his balance at the edge of the floor, but Leia grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him back.

"Shavit," Leia stated flatly, hearing her words echo as they surveyed the air shaft.

The shaft's steep walls seemed to stretch to infinity. Across the chasm, another open doorway was set in the facing wall. Luke and Leia realized they were standing upon nothing more than a shallow overhang that housed a retractable bridge.

Blasterfire exploded behind them. Leia spun around and began deflecting the shots back at the advancing stormtroopers. Luke scrambled around until he found a control panel embedded in the doorway.

He reached over to the panel, hit a switch, and the door slid shut behind them.

"There's no lock!" he warned.

"Shoot it then!" Leia cried, eyeing the door, which was already making noises. The enemy would break through soon enough.

Luke aimed his blaster at the control panel and fired, frying the door's opening mechanisms.

"That should hold them for a while," Leia sighed, lowering her sabre slightly.

"Quick," Luke urged her, looking at the door across the chasm. "We've got to get across. Find the controls that extend the bridge."

She looked at the smouldering circuits on the panel in the doorway grimaced. "Oh," she said, patting her infinity-bun anxiously. _'A Jedi never shows their anxiety'_ Obi-Wan's voice chided her from memory. _'Release your fear into the Force and trust in It.'_

"I think we just blasted it."

' _At least'_ Luke thought wryly. _'She took her share of the blame.'_ He liked this girl. Most people would have used the fact that he blasted the controls to give him all the blame for the predicament, ignoring that he had been following her instructions.

There came a grinding sound from the door behind them.

"They're coming through!" Luke warned.

Leia bit her lip as she thought furiously. She was good at Force-jumps, as Obi-Wan insisted she have a certain amount of proficiency in every area of her lessons, but taking Luke with her would ruin her balance and she didn't want to risk it.

She looked up, spotting an outcropping of large metal pipes that jutted down from above.

Her eyes lit up, remembering the grappling hook attached to her utility belt (standard issue for all Rebel soldiers).

But as she reached for her belt, laserfire hit the wall behind her.

Luke and Leia fell back against the doorway's alcove as more laserbolts whizzed past them. Glancing out from the alcove, they saw three stormtroopers firing from an upper-level doorway on the facing wall.

Leia stepped out of their shelter and once again began deflecting the bolts of deadly energy. She thanked her Master mentally for being so rigid about her Soresu practice. He sent back an amused acknowledgment before retreating from their bond so he could focus on his own return to the ship.

One trooper was hit in the chest, and fell forward into the shaft. The other troopers returned fire, and Leia retreated to the alcove.

"I have a plan," she whispered to the tense prince. "Distract them for a minute."

He nodded and, after taking in a deep breath, he stepped out of their cover and began firing at the troopers.

While Luke kept the troopers occupied, Leia pulled the grappling hook from her belt. She was still paying out the hook's thin cable when the door behind her began to open.

"Here they come!" Luke shouted. He fired again at the stormtroopers across the shaft. One of his shots struck a trooper, and he collapsed.

Meanwhile, Leia tossed the hook high, letting its weight carry the cable up to the metal pipes. The hook whipped around one pipe and the hook's tines locked onto the cable. She gave the cable a single tug to make sure it was secure, then pulled Luke to her side. Behind them, the door opened a fraction more.

"May the Force be with us!" Luke muttered, keeping his grip on the blaster rifle as he wrapped his arms around Leia while she pushed off from the overhang. Leia carefully used the Force to guide them as they flew over the chasm.

They swung across the treacherous shaft and alighted on the opposite ledge, just as the stormtroopers broke through and fired at them from behind. Luke returned fire, then the two scrambled through the doorway and ran into another hallway. This time, they didn't get lost on their way back to the Falcon.

* * *

Several stormtroopers rushed through a Death Star hallway.

"We think they may be splitting up," one trooper reported. "They may be on levels five and six now, sir."

Obi-Wan stood hidden in the shadows of a narrow passageway that adjoined the hallway. A small smile of fondness played on his lips as he listened to the conversation. Typical that Leia had attracted trouble. She was her parents' daughter in that way. Never able to stay out of trouble or ignore someone in need of help. When he was sure the troopers had passed, he drew his lightsabre from his belt. He did not activate the blade but held it ready.

He had a feeling he would be using his weapon sooner than later. Much sooner. Silently, Obi-Wan proceeded into the hallway.

* * *

Han and Chewbacca raced through a corridor with several stormtroopers hot on their trail. As the man and Wookiee approached a wide doorway, a trooper shouted out from behind.

"Close the blast doors!"

Suddenly, thick metal doors began to slide out from the doorway's frame. Chewbacca maintained a breakneck pace as he ran between the converging doors. Han spun and fired back at the stormtroopers, then turned again and leaped through the closing aperture at the last possible moment before the blast doors sealed off the corridor behind him.

"Open the blast doors!" shouted the trooper. "Open the blast doors!"

On the other side, Han and Chewbacca kept running.

* * *

Obi-Wan still had his lightsabre drawn as he moved along through an access tunnel that led back to Docking Bay 327. Having disabled the tractor beam, his remaining goal was to make sure that Leia and Luke, the babies that he had sworn to protect, left the Death Star on the Millennium Falcon. Alive.

But before he could reach the hangar, he sensed the cold malice of a Sith Lord, and when he looked straight ahead he spotted a tall, shadowy form at the end of the tunnel. It was his former apprentice, Darth Vader.

Vader had already activated the red blade of his lightsabre. For a moment, he stood motionless. Then he approached Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan activated his lightsabre and stepped slowly forward. He'd fought Vader before. He hadn't been afraid then either.

His only regret was that he would be leaving Leia, who had suffered so many losses already in her young life, and who he had come to love as a daughter in the years since her birth. His fondest memories since Order 66 were of the times when he would sneak into Naboo to check on her, and see her innocent giggles.

But he would do what had to be done so that the Jedi, Padmé and everyone who Vader had killed would get the justice they deserved. Leia would see it happen. He had Seen it in the Force. Leia would defeat the Sith and restore the Order. It was her destiny, and this was his.


	11. The Master's Last Battle

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.**

 **Chapter Eleven**

**The Master's Last Battle**

"I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan," Vader said as he moved closer to the elderly Jedi Knight. "We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete."

Obi-Wan assumed a Soresu position as his former apprentice continued, "When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master."

"Only a master of evil, Darth," Obi-Wan said, his tone genuinely sorrowful. He truly did regret that he had failed to prevent Anakin's Turn to Darkness, and failed to kill him properly on Mustafar.

But he had learned to let go of the 'what if's', and right now he had to focus on the here and now. The twins needed Vader distracted so they could escape, and that was what Obi-Wan was going to do.

He made a sudden lunge at Vader but the dark lord blocked the attack. There was a loud electric crackle as their lightsabres made contact. Obi-Wan swung again and again, but each time Vader parried.

"Your powers are weak, old man," Vader sneered victoriously. "As weak as the Light Side that you serve is!"

"You can't win, Darth," Obi-Wan countered calmly, firm in his loyalty to the Force and the Light. "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

"You should have died on Mustafar!" Vader hissed. Others' acceptance of death's inevitability had always unnerved him.

"As I recall, you did your best," Obi-Wan replied dryly, their lightsabres clashing again.

And again, and again. And as their battle continued, they moved closer to the main doorway that led directly to the hangar that contained the _Millennium Falcon._

* * *

Chewbacca and Han ran through a hallway until they arrived at a side door to the hangar that housed their captured ship. Bracing themselves against the wall, they peered into the hangar and saw the same five stormtrooper sentries they'd seen earlier, from the window at the upper level. The _Falcon_ looked the same as they'd left it, with the landing ramp still down.

"Didn't we just leave this party?" Han asked. He glanced to his left and saw Leia and Luke rushing up from the other end of the hallway.

"What kept you?" He asked as they arrived and crouched at his side.

"We ran into some old friends," Luke replied, catching his breath.

"Is the ship all right?" Leia asked. Unlike the prince, she was completely fine. Her face was in a practiced mask of serenity similar to Obi-Wan's usual expression. She had gone into a half-meditation to keep herself thinking clearly.

"Seems okay, if we can get to it," Han shrugged. "Just hope the old man got the tractor beam out of commission."

He was trying to think of a way to get rid of the stormtroopers in the hangar that didn't rely on Leia's _abilities_ (which he couldn't bring himself to trust) when Leia suddenly pointed.

"Look!" She ordered, eyes widening with surprise.

Inexplicably, the stormtroopers were trotting away from the _Falcon's_ landing ramp and moved past the deep elevator well.

"Now's our chance!" Han cried. "Go!"

The group began to run for the Falcon's landing ramp, the droids emerging from their hiding spot and also going for the rank as quick as they could.

On instinct, Leia glanced to her right and saw the stormtroopers had moved to the other side of the elevator well. They faced away from her, their attention having been drawn to a fight that was taking place in the hallway beyond the main doorway. It was a lightsabre duel.

Leia recognized the two combatants immediately.

"Master?" She breathed, and came to a stop. She grabbed her own lightsabre and tried to figure out a way to get over and help her guardian against their enemy.

Obi-Wan looked over at his apprentice and smiled, sending a mental message to her. _'I'm so proud of you, Leia. As are your parents. You are a true Jedi.'_ Then he raised his lightsabre before him and closed his eyes. He looked almost serene.

Despite Vader arrogantly believing that Obi-Wan was surrendering, the dark lord was without mercy. Vader's lightsabre swept through the air and sliced through Obi-Wan's form. Obi-Wan's cloak and lightsabre fell to the floor. His body was gone.

"No!" Leia shouted as she felt her Padawan bond snap roughly. For a moment, as Vader looked over at her, she was consumed by rage and a desire for revenge. Vader had taken so much from her and the galaxy, and now he had murdered her Master. She wanted him to pay, and the Dark Side called to her, urging her to give in to it even as she blocked and deflected the stormtroopers' shots.

' _You have the strength'_ the Dark crooned seductively at her. _'Your anger makes you strong. Use it to strike him down and gain your revenge!'_

An intense feeling of cold began to creep over her, her grief muddling her ability to think, having long since lost her half-trance.

It was Luke who saved her. Han, despite his attempts amid firing back at the Imperials, could not pierce the veil of anger and grief that had enveloped her. But Luke, who unknowingly called to her through their bond as well as aloud, could.

"Come on! Come on! Leia, it's too late!"

Meanwhile, Vader looked away from Obi-Wan's cloak towards the Padawan, then turned and strode toward the doorway to the hangar. It would be fitting, he thought to himself, if both Kenobi's first and final apprentice's Turned to the Dark Side. And he could sense the power pouring out of the girl from here. He could make use of her before he killed her.

Han fired at the controls beside the doorway, making the two blast doors slide closed and preventing Vader from entering, though they all knew it wouldn't stall him for long.

Leia's expression was almost dead as Luke grabbed her arm and dragged her to the ramp.

Han and Chewie ran into the _Falcon_ ahead of them to ready it for flight.

The three remaining stormtroopers continued to fire at the others. Luke fired back, reducing their number to two.

Then, from out of nowhere, Leia heard her teacher's voice: _"Run, Leia! Run!"_

She looked around, trying to see where the voice had come from. She saw nothing but chose to heed his words and finally raced with Luke into the Falcon. Chewbacca already had the ship's sub-light engines started when Han rushed into the cockpit.

Han stowed his blaster rifle and jumped into the pilot's seat. "I hope the old man got that tractor beam out of commission," he muttered to his friend. "Or this is going to be a real short trip. Okay, hit it!"

The Wookiee punched the controls and the _Falcon_ launched out of the hangar in reverse, then spun and blasted away from the Death Star. As the Corellian freighter gained distance from the Imperial space station, Chewbacca barked at Han.

Even though they now knew for certain that Ben had disabled the tractor beam, they still had a problem: The destruction of the planet Alderaan had spread so much debris across the sector that it was no longer safe to use the nearest designated portal to hyperspace. They'd have to enter hyperspace by a different route.

In the Falcon's main hold, the droids looked at Leia, who sat at the game table with her face buried in her hands. Luke carried a blanket over to Leia, wrapped it around her shoulders, and sat beside her, a hand resting on her shoulder.

"I should have known this was coming," she whispered to him. "He's been increasing my training lately, sending me off without him, and he never used to let me go off alone, even when I wanted to. He knew, and he was trying to prepare me, but I didn't _realize_."

A part of her berated herself for being lost in her grief for her guardian when Luke had just lost his entire planet, and most of his family with it. The rest of her snapped that she had every right to grieve, and one person's grief couldn't be weighed against another's. Obi-Wan had been the centre of her world for five years, and she was allowed to grieve for him. She had to grieve for him, or risk her buried pain Turning her to evil.

In the cockpit, Chewbacca was still waiting for the nav computer to come up with a new route into hyperspace when Han spotted four blips on a sensor scope.

"We're coming up on their sentry ships," he warned. "Hold 'em off! Angle the deflector shields while I charge up the main guns!"

Chewbacca threw switches to adjust the shields. Han pulled on a pair of skin-tight leather piloting gloves and bolted out of the cockpit.

Back in the main hold, Luke continued to sit by Leia, comforting her.

R2 let out a sympathetic beep at Leia's tears. Although C-3PO was rarely at a loss for words, he remained silent.

"There wasn't anything you could have done," Luke told her, rubbing her back soothingly.

Just then, Han rushed into the hold.

"Come on, Sunshine, we're not out of this yet!" he announced, snapping Leia from her haze of despair.

The two jumped up from their seats, leaving the droids at the game table. While Luke ran to the Falcon's cockpit, Leia shrugged off the blanket that Luke had given her and followed Han to the access hatch for the gun-port turrets.

The access hatch opened to a narrow passage tube with a ladder that travelled between the dorsal and ventral quad laser cannons. Han climbed up the ladder and Leia climbed down.

Each arrived in a windowed gunner's enclosure that contained a maneuverable seat with firing controls and targeting instrumentation. Outside each window was a large swivel-mounted quad laser cannon and Leia quickly identified the cannons as military issue.

She settled into her seats, making a mental note to find out where he got them, if they lived long enough for it matter, anyway.

Han adjusted his com-link headset and spoke into the attached microphone: "You in, Firecracker? Okay, stay sharp!"

Leia quickly familiarized herself with the controls. There was a targeting computer that worked in conjunction with the _Falcon's_ navigational computer and sensor array to calculate trajectories and attack and intercept courses.

Grasping twin firing grips with built-in triggers, Leia shifted her wrists to the right; her seat automatically swivelled to the left, and the cannon's four laser barrels, visible through the window, swung hard to the right. Then she pulled back on the controls and the seat lowered as the cannon raised. Each movement was accompanied by the mechanical whine from the cannon's tracking servos.

Suddenly, the _Falcon_ shuddered as its shields took a laser hit from a distant attacker. In the cockpit, Luke and Chewbacca glanced from the scopes to the window, keeping their eyes peeled for the incoming Imperial ships. Chewbacca spotted them first and barked.

"Here they come!" Luke warned into the com-link.

The sentry ships were four TIE fighters. They came in fast, flying in a tight formation toward the _Falcon's_ cockpit before they broke away from each other and fanned out around the freighter. Then the fighters looped back and fired again at their target.

Green laserbolts hammered at the Falcon's deflector shields. The _Falcon_ bounced and vibrated and the ship's power surged.

In the _Falcon's_ main hold, C-3PO clung to his seat beside R2 as the lights dimmed and then came back on. Hoping to make himself useful, R2 left the game table to inspect the engineering station. Not wanting to be left alone, C-3PO went with him.

A TIE fighter maneuvered above the Falcon. Han tracked the fighter and fired at it with his laser cannon, but missed. The TIE fighter looped back and streaked into Leia's view, and she fired, using the Force to guide her actions and blasting him out of the sky. She smirked slightly, but kept her focus with the skill of the experienced veteran that she was.

Two more TIE fighters spat laserfire and the _Falcon_ bounced as it took more hits. Leia hung tight to her controls and fired at one of the passing TIE fighters as it soared past her window. This time, however, she missed.

"They're coming in too fast!" She announced frustratedly. The Force had helped with the first fighter, but her concentration was damaged badly by the broken remnants of her bond. She needed meditation to block off the damage, but she didn't have time.

C-3PO and R2-D2 stumbled out of the main hold and into the passage tube just as more Imperial laserfire struck the Falcon. There was a small explosion at the floor.

"Oh!" C-3PO shouted as he was thrown against the passage tube's wall.

In the cockpit, Luke watched the computer readouts as Chewbacca manipulated the ship's controls.

"We've lost lateral controls," he reported.

"Don't worry," Han replied via the com-link. "She'll hold together."

Near the droids, a control panel blew out in a shower of sparks beside the laser cannon access hatch. Han heard the explosion and gained a tense expression.

"You hear me, baby?" he said directly to the ship. "Hold together!"

R2 hurried over to the smoking, sparking control panel. Among the astromech's many useful devices was a fire extinguisher. He sprayed the control panel until the fire was out.

The TIE fighters continued their attack. Leia and Han swivelled madly in their turrets as they returned fire. Han followed a TIE fighter in his sights and pumped rapid bursts of laserbolts at it. He connected, and the TIE fighter exploded making Han laugh victoriously.

A moment later, another TIE fighter swept into Leia's line of fire. She swung the cannon as she squeezed the firing grips and scored a direct hit, shattering the TIE fighter. "Got him!" Leia shouted back to Han.

"Three down, one to go!" He yelled back. "Keep shooting!"

The last of the attacking TIE fighters zoomed in and fired at the top of the Falcon. Han swivelled behind his laser cannon and squeezed the firing grips. The fighter was instantly consumed in a massive, fiery explosion. Han blew out a relieved breath.

Leia laughed in adrenaline-fueled relief. "That's it! We did it!" she exclaimed, delighted in a way that only ever came from surviving a near-death experience.

Her happiness quickly disappeared again however, as the broken Padawan bond pulsed again, as if to reprimand her for being happy when her mentor was lost forever.

It was that pain that distracted her from realizing what she would have if she were in her right mind. Their escape had been too easy, and that could only mean one thing. The Empire was tracking them, and they were leading it right to the Rebel base.


	12. Yavin's Preparations

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.**

 **Chapter Twelve**

**Yavin's Preparations**

The planet Yavin was an orange gas giant, nearly 200,000 kilometres in diameter. It had dozens of moons, three of which could support humanoid life. The innermost habitable moon was designated Yavin 4, and was covered by steamy jungles and volcanic mountain ranges.

Thousands of years earlier, Yavin 4 had been the home to the Massassi, an ancient species of fierce warriors. They had been subjugated by an ancient Sith Lord named Exar Kun, and now all that remained of them were their scattered ruins. These ruins included a towering ziggurat, a terraced pyramid with successively receding stories, known as the Great Temple. It was in this long-abandoned structure that the Alliance, following their evacuation from Chopper Base on the planet Atollon, had relocated their primary base.

After Leia had transmitted her codes and the _Millennium Falcon_ was cleared for landing, a Rebel sentry visually monitored the freighter's atmospheric descent from an observation tower, which was little more than a barrel-topped pole that extended high above the jungle floor.

The _Falcon_ touched down near the Great Temple, where Rebel troops greeted Commander Naberrie, Prince Luke and their companions. Two military speeders transported Luke and the others into the main hangar deck, a large chamber that had been excavated from the lower level of the Great Temple. The hangar contained a few dozen single-pilot starships, mostly T-65 X-wing starfighters but also some older Y-wings.

Inside the hanger, the group was received by an illustrious welcoming committee. Former-Senator Mon Mothma, Generals Jan Dodonna and Hera Syndulla (as usual, her infant son Caleb Syndulla was hanging off her of her hip), Admiral Ackbar and Leia's only surviving family. Her elder sister Pooja.

The only acknowledgment that the sisters shared was a quick glance at each other, Pooja's relief that her baby sister had returned shining through her eyes and the Force.

"Luke!" Mothma cried, hurrying to hug the prince. "Thank the Force. When we heard about Alderaan, we feared the worst. Your father had Winter removed from school, just in time to avoid her being arrested. She's on a ship with a dozen guards. They haven't given a destination yet."

Her smile faltered as she finally realized what the soldiers had noticed already. For once, Leia was not hovering faithfully at her Master's side, and her expression was strained and mournful.

"Oh, no," Mothma breathed. "Obi-Wan?"

"He fended off Vader so that we could escape with the plans and His Highness," Leia replied dully.

The people surrounding them all bowed their heads respectfully, and Leia could sense the worry coming from them all. Obi-Wan was the one who had founded the original Rebel Alliance and his reputation had done a great deal for them. His strategic mind was unmatched. How would the Alliance survive with the Death Star and without their leader?

But Leia knew that now was not the time for grief. She and Luke had realized on the way that the Empire must have been following them, and now they needed to prepare.

"We have no time for sorrows, Commander," Luke said firmly. He gestured at Artoo as he continued. "You must use the information in this Artoo unit to help plan the attack. It's our only hope."

R2-D2 was taken immediately to a computer console and debriefed. The stolen technical readouts were intact. While anyone not needed was evacuated from the base, General Dodonna methodically analyzed the data, searching the Death Star's design for the weakness Jyn Erso had sworn her father had put in it. If there really was a chink in the space station's armour, General Dodonna was determined to find it.

Incredibly, he did.

* * *

On the Death Star, Darth Vader stood behind a chair in the conference room and watched Grand Moff Tarkin respond to a signal from the com-link on the large round table.

"Yes," Tarkin snapped out crisply, pushing a button.

"We are approaching the planet Yavin," a trooper reported over the com-link. "The Rebel base is on a moon on the far side. We are preparing to orbit the planet."

* * *

On Yavin 4, Leia was still wearing the clothes she wore on Tatooine when she joined the orange-uniformed Rebel pilots who gathered in the base's war room briefing area.

Leia might have primarily been Obi-Wan's protegée, but she had originally joined the Alliance as an X-Wing pilot. She had been in charge of Red Squadron for almost two years by now, and had flown in several major battles, both won and lost, like Atollon and the Liberation of Lothal. Her Force-aided instincts had made her the best pilot in the fleet, and she would lead the assault.

She sat beside her second-in-command, a dark-haired young man from Alderaan named Wedge Antilles. She had briefly feared he would be too distressed by his home's destruction to fly, but one look had told her that grounding him would do no good.

C-3PO, R2-D2, and some other astromechs stood behind Leia and Wedge.

Looking around, she spotted Han and Chewbacca lurking against the back wall.

Her eyebrows raised in surprise at that, but a tiny smile played at her lips as she became certain that he intended to stay. Maybe he would go for a while, but Han had a Rebel's spirit, and a grudge against the Empire. He would end up with them eventually, whether that day was now or a year away. She could sense it.

All heads turned to the front as Prince Luke, General Dodonna (Hera and Phoenix Squadron had been placed in charge of guarding the evacuees), and Commander Willard entered the room.

Luke moved to stand beside Jon "Dutch" Vander, leader of Y-wing Gold Squadron. Dodonna stepped before a large rectangular viewscreen and faced the gathered pilots.

The viewscreen displayed the technical readouts for the Death Star.

"The battle station is heavily shielded and carries a firepower greater than half the starfleet," Dodonna explained, waving at it. "Its' defences are designed around a direct large-scale assault. A small one-man fighter should be able to penetrate outer defence."

Given the Death Star's reported firepower, most of the pilots had a hard time believing they stood any chance against the superweapon.

"Pardon me for asking, sir," Jon Vander called. "But what good are snubfighters going to be against that?"

"Well, the Empire doesn't consider a small one-man fighter to be any threat, or they'd have a tighter defence," Dodonna explained, clasping his hands behind his back. "An analysis of the plans provided by Prince Luke has demonstrated that Sergeant Erso was right. There is a weakness in the battle station."

Artoo, happy to have been instrumental in carrying the plans, beeped proudly to a nearby R2 unit.

"The approach will not be easy," Dodonna continued. He continued as the viewscreen displayed a digital representation of the Death Star's equatorial trench.

"You are required to maneuver straight down this trench and skim the surface to this point. The target area is only two meters wide. It's a small thermal exhaust port, right below the main port. The shaft leads directly to the reactor system. A precise hit will start a chain reaction which should destroy the station."

On the viewscreen, a simulation showed a starfighter launching a projectile into what appeared to be a small hole on the floor of the Death Star's trench. As the starfighter pulled out and ascended from the trench, the projectile plummeted through a narrow shaft until it reached the reactor core at the very centre of the space station. Then bright lines radiated out from the reactor core and the station's image vanished.

"Only a precise hit will set up a chain reaction," Dodonna warned. "The shaft is ray-shielded, so you'll have to use proton torpedoes."

Dodonna's presentation generated a rumble of mutterings from the pilots.

"That's impossible, even for a computer," Wedge protested.

Leia shook her head in rebuttal. "It's not impossible," she countered softly. "I can do it, just let me get in range."

Knowing from experience the power of the Jedi, the pilots all nodded.

"Then man your ships!" Dodonna ordered. "And may the Force be with you!"

The pilots rose from their seats and headed out through the door that led to the hangar. Leia caught Luke looking in her direction but she couldn't tell from his expression what the prince was thinking. Then she realized that he wasn't looking at her but at someone behind her.

Leia turned around, expecting to see Han and Chewbacca, but they had already left the room. The droids were still there, and R2-D2 beeped cheerfully to her. She gave him a weak smile before she looked back at Luke, but now he was gone too, along with the other Rebel leaders.

Leia paused for a moment to take a deep breath in before releasing it. It seemed hard to believe that only a few days ago she and Obi-Wan were trying to convince the Hutts to smuggle them the supplies they needed. Now her mentor, the great general who had seemed almost immortal to her, was gone. What was she going to do without him and his wisdom-filled guidance?

The Last Jedi. She felt her shoulders slump under the weight of the horrifying title. Then she straightened them and went to the hanger. Mourning came later. _'Focus on the here and now',_ Obi-Wan's voice chided her gently.

' _Yes Master'_ she agreed mentally.

* * *

On the Death Star, Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader watched a computer monitor that showed the space station's position in relation to the planet Yavin and the moon Yavin 4. As the planetary diagrams moved over and past each other on the monitor, a voice from the intercom announced, "Orbiting the planet at maximum velocity. The moon with the Rebel base will be in range in thirty minutes."

"This will be a day long remembered," Vader said. "It has seen the end of Kenobi. It will soon see the end of the Rebellion."

Tarkin glanced at Vader, then returned his gaze to the monitor. He anticipated with relish delivering the crushing blow to the Rebel Alliance.

* * *

C-3PO and R2-D2 went with Leia to the main hangar. She had quickly changed from her tunic and leggings and was now wearing a bright orange flight suit and carried a helmet adorned with Alliance emblems. The flight suit had once been her father's and was far too large for her. Darred Janren had not been a small man, but when she wore his suit, Leia felt as if she were being engulfed in his comfortable embrace again.

In the hangar, flight crews rushed to make last-minute adjustments to the starfighters.

"All flight troops, man your stations," a voice instructed over the loud-speaker. "All flight troops, man your stations."

Stepping down to the hangar floor, Leia found Han and Chewbacca preparing a speeder for themselves. The smuggler appeared to be completely ignoring the activity of the Rebel flight crews and pilots.

"So…," Leia drawled, eyeing him coolly. "You're just leaving, then?"

"That's right, yeah!" Han said. He turned and gave her a defiant look. "You're the most intriguing and crazy girl I've ever met, I'll give you that, Naberrie. But unlike some, I have common sense. I ain't crossing the Empire, 'specially as they have a damn _planet-killer_ now."

"All right," she replied curtly, hiding her hurt and disappointment under a mask of cold indifference. She reminded herself that the Force insisted that he would join them eventually. "Well then, take care of yourself, Han. I guess that's what you're best at, isn't it?" She turned and started to walk off.

Han hesitated and then called out. "Hey, Leia…"

She stopped and turned.

Then Han, despite himself, said, "May the Force be with you."

Although Leia was surprised to hear those words from the same smuggler who was blatantly sceptical of the Force, she didn't show it. She stared back at him solemnly for a moment, murmured a quiet, "You too, Han," then she turned away again.

As she walked off, Han caught Chewbacca's gaze. "What're you lookin' at?" He snapped before he climbed into the speeder and muttered, "I know what I'm doin'."

Meanwhile, Leia headed for her X-wing. Over the hangar's loudspeaker, the controller's voice continued to announce, "All pilots to your stations. All pilots to your stations."

Luke was walking with a group with a group of ground soldiers when he spotted Leia helping Artoo into her beloved X-Wing. (Also a relic of Darred Janren's time as a Rebel pilot). He separated from the group and headed over to her.

"Ready?" He asked.

She gave a strained smile and shrugged. "We'll see," she sighed, brushing down her flight suit and wishing she could have said a proper goodbye to Pooja, rather than their hasty hug before the elder sister had been bustled onto her ship.

"May the Force be with you," Luke sighed, pulling her in for an embrace. She squeezed him firmly, revelling in the feeling of completion she got when she was in his arms. Then she pulled away reluctantly.

"And with you," she murmured, before turning and climbing into her ship.


	13. The Battle of Yavin

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. Really long chapter this time guys. I didn't want to split it in two. So, enjoy, read and review.**

 **Chapter Thirteen**

**The Battle of Yavin**

Leaving Yavin 4's atmosphere, the X-wing and Y-wing starfighters sped away across space. They flew in a tight formation at sub-light speed, staying in sight of one another. After they wrapped around the gas giant Yavin, they saw a strange moonlike sphere in the distance.

The Death Star.

Each pilot was a brave person, united by their willingness to put their lives on the line against the Empire. Leia knew each of them by name. Red Two, Wedge Antilles. Red Three, Garven Dreis. Red Four was Biggs Darklighter, the newest member of the squadron. Red Five, Jek Porkins. Red Six, Keyan Farlander. Red Seven, Bren Quersey. Red Eight, Theron Nett. Red Nine, Nozzo Naytan, Red Ten, Hamo Blastwell. Leia was Red Leader, and the final member.

"All wings, report in," she ordered. They began to respond, and she gave a sharp nod once Nozzo finished it off. "Good. We've got one shot, guys. Make it count."

"Will do, Commander," Biggs agreed cheerfully.

"Whoever makes the shot gets dinner on the rest of us for a year," Keyan added cheerfully.

"I'm gonna kick your asses," Wedge inserted. "And send all those Imps straight to the seven hells of Corellia."

"Yeah, yeah, boys," Leia rolled her eyes. "Focus and lock Sfoils in attack position."

Going serious and staying in formation, Red Squadron unfolded their starfighters' wings and locked them into the "X" position. As they neared the Death Star, the fighters began to shudder, and the pilots bounced in their cockpits.

"We're passing through their magnetic field," Leia announced tensely, clutching her controls tightly. "Hold tight! Switch your deflectors on," she added a second later. "Double front!"

The pilots adjusted the controls on their fighters' shields.

The Death Star now loomed large before the approaching starfighters. The gargantuan space station's surface was half in shadow, and the shadowed area sparkled with thousands of lights, like a planetary city at night when viewed from space. Watching the Death Star fill his X-wing's cockpit window, Wedge gasped.

"Look at the size of that thing!" he exclaimed.

"Cut the chatter, Red Two," Leia ordered, completely in soldier mode now. "Accelerate to attack speed. This is it, boys!" She declared as the starfighters increased velocity.

The X-wings angled to fly low over the Death Star's trench.

"Red Leader, this is Gold Leader," Dutch Vander said to Leia over the com-links.

"I copy, Gold Leader," she replied via her headset.

"We're starting for the target shaft now," Vander informed her curtly.

"We're in position," she reported back. "I'm going to have Reds Three, Four, Eight and Nine cut across the axis and try and draw their fire."

Leia hated to send her men, her friends, into the danger zone, but she had no choice in the matter. Her men knew what they had signed up for when they joined the Rebellion.

The assigned X-wings peeled off and dived toward the Death Star's surface. The space station's large turbo-powered laser gun emplacements became visible, and the guns rotated and fired green laserbolts at the Rebel fighters.

On Yavin 4, the Rebel pilots' comm transmissions were broadcast over the war room's intercom. Luke and C-3PO listened intently to the fight, Luke feeling useless.

"Heavy fire, boss!" They heard Wedge say. "Twenty-three degrees."

"I see it," Leia replied. "Stay low."

' _Be safe'_ Luke plead mentally. It felt like Leia was a piece of him he had been missing his entire life, and he didn't know if he could go on without her now he had found her. _'Please be safe.'_

He looked to an illuminated tactical screen, found the blip that represented the position of Leia's X-wing over the Death Star, and kept his eyes fixed on the blip.

From her cockpit, Leia saw Wedge maneuver his starfighter toward the Death Star.

"This is Red Leader!" She spoke quickly. "I'm going in!"

Leia raced down toward the space station. Laserbolts streaked from her X-wing's cannons, creating a huge fireball explosion on the station's surface. Suddenly, Leia realized she was traveling too fast to avoid the rising flames.

Seeing Leia's situation, Biggs shouted, "Leia, pull out!"

Cursing furiously, Leia pulled hard on the controls and her fighter ascended rapidly through the fire. Glancing out her cockpit window, she could see fresh scorch marks on the leading edges of her wings.

"Are you all right?" Biggs asked.

"Fine," she snapped tensely. "I need an opening."

They resumed strafing the Death Star's surface with laserbolts.

* * *

Alarms sounded and red lights flashed within the Death Star's corridor. As stormtroopers and droids rushed to their stations, only Darth Vader appeared to remain calm amidst the chaotic activity.

A black-uniformed Imperial officer ran up to him.

"We count thirty Rebel ships, Lord Vader," he reported. "But they're so small, they're evading our turbolasers!"

"We'll have to destroy them ship to ship," Vader decided. "Get the crews to their fighters."

* * *

Garven flew his X-wing through a heavy hail of flak. "Watch yourself!" he cautioned the other pilots. "There's a lot of fire coming from the right side of that deflection tower."

"I'm on it," Leia replied, spotting the deflection tower and heading for it.

"I'm going in," Biggs announced. "Cover me, Porkins!"

"I'm right with you, Red Two," Porkins replied, mistaking Biggs for Wedge.

The two pilots angled toward the tower and fired. There was an eruption of flames from the tower's side, but the Imperials responded with a barrage of laserfire. Suddenly, Porkins realized he was heading straight into the barrage.

"I've got a problem here," he said.

"Eject!" Biggs shouted.

"I can hold it," Porkins insisted, angling his ship in an attempt to avoid the crisscrossing laserbolts that streaked from the station. He really thought he could make it. Biggs saw otherwise and tried to stop him.

"Pull out!"

"No, I'm all right," Porkins said just before his fighter took a direct hit. His cockpit filled with smoke. Then his ship exploded, and Porkins was gone.

* * *

Grand Moff Tarkin watched the battle as it was displayed on a monitor in the Death Star control room.

"The Rebel base will be in firing range in seven minutes," a voice announced over the intercom.

From Tarkin's perspective, the Rebel starfighters were nothing but a slight annoyance. He couldn't imagine they would accomplish anything more than marring the surface of his space station. Still, if there were any Rebel pilots left after the destruction of Yavin 4, he would make them pay for the damage.

With their lives.

* * *

Leia was still flying low over the Death Star's surface but she was struggling. Her Master had always urged her to trust her feelings, but right now, with the debris of her friends' ships floating around, her feelings screamed for revenge. That was a danger for her, and she knew it. The Dark Side called for her, but she stubbornly pushed it away as she squeezed her triggers to make her cannons launched more laserbolts into the Death Star, before she streaked away from the explosions.

Leia was preparing for another attack when she heard a Rebel base control officer's voice on her headset.

"Squad leaders, we've picked up a new group of signals," the control officer warned. "Enemy fighters coming your way."

"My scope's negative," she reported. "I don't see anything."

"Pick up your visual scanning," Garven advised.

Leia quickly turned her head to look out through her side windows, searching for any sight of incoming Imperial fighters.

Garven spotted the ships first and warned the group. "Here they come."

There were six TIE fighters. Flying in an incredibly tight formation, they raced toward the Rebel ships, then fanned out to pursue individual targets.

"Watch it!" Leia shouted to Bren Quersey, Red Four. "You've got one on your tail."

Bren tried to evade the TIE fighter's laserfire, but failed. His X-wing shattered and exploded, scattering debris in all directions. Gritting her teeth, Leia visually scanned the other fighters in her squadron.

"Biggs!" she called out in warning. "You've picked one up. Watch it!"

"I can't see it!" Biggs answered. He sent his X-wing into a series of tight swerves but the TIE fighter followed each evasive maneuver. Green laserfire whizzed past him.

"They're on me tight. I can't shake him.…"

"I'll be right there," Leia assured him, angling her X-wing to pursue the TIE fighter that was right on Biggs' tail.

Glancing at her targeting computer, Leia locked her target into her sights and fired. The TIE fighter exploded in a mass of flames.

' _I don't know how much longer we can keep this up'_ she worried mentally. _'If the Death Star deploys even more TIE fighters, we'll really be in for it!'_

* * *

Darth Vader strode purposefully down a Death Star corridor and came to a stop before two black-clad Imperial TIE fighter pilots. Like their stormtrooper counterparts, the Imperial pilots were entirely without fear.

"Several fighters have broken off from the main group," he snapped out. "Come with me!" He headed for a door that led to a hangar, the two pilots following obediently.

* * *

On Yavin 4, Luke continued to listen to the transmissions from the Rebel pilots.

"Pull in! Leia…pull in!" He heard Biggs warn frantically over the intercom.

"Watch your back, Leia!" Wedge added urgently a second later.

Luke tried to visualize what was happening over the Death Star, and tried to hide his trembling.

In her cockpit, Leia heard Wedge's warning seconds after she began evasive maneuvers to avoid the incoming fighters she had sensed. She angled away from the Death Star's surface until she spotted the tailing TIE fighter.

The Imperial pilot fired and just missed scoring a hit on Leia's X-wing.

"I'm good," Leia announced as she continued with her evasive action.

Even though Garven knew that Jek Porkins had already been killed, he was under the strain of combat when he called out Porkins' comm-unit designation: "Red Five…can you see Red Leader?"

Red Eight, Theron Nett, answered, "There's a heavy fire zone on this side. Red Leader, where are you?"

Leia was still trying to evade the same TIE fighter that had almost struck her X-wing.

"I can't shake him!" Leia snapped out. She knew what the problem was of course, her broken bond was damaging her ability to focus. Knowing that didn't help in the slightest.

"I'm on him, Leia!" Wedge called in. "Hold on!"

Wedge dived toward Leia and the TIE fighter. Leia increased speed, but the TIE fighter clung determinedly to her trail.

Growing ever-more frantic as she waited for Wedge to come to her aid, Leia suddenly realized that she had lost sight of Biggs.

"Shavit!" she cried. "Biggs, where are you?"

Biggs was rapidly racing to Leia's position, but Wedge got there first.

In a daring maneuver, Wedge guided his X-wing straight for the cockpit window of Leia's pursuer. Wedge fired his cannons and the TIE fighter's spherical command pod exploded into space dust. Because of his velocity, Wedge was unable to pull out, but he quickly angled his X-wing to fly through the fiery explosion, narrowly missing the two hexagonal wings that were all that remained of the destroyed TIE fighter.

"Thanks, Wedge," Leia said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Good shooting, Wedge!" Biggs chimed in.

As Leia readjusted her controls, she heard the voice of Y-wing pilot Dutch Vander speak over her headset: "Red Leader, this is Gold Leader. We're starting our attack run."

"I copy, Gold Leader," she replied. She hoped that the Force would be with them. "Move into position."

While Gold Leader and two other Y-wings descended to the enormous space station's trench, Darth Vader and his two wingmen piloted their TIE fighters out of a Death Star hangar and into space.

Vader's ship was a TIE Advanced x1 Prototype with an elongated rear deck and matching solar arrays that bent in toward the central command pod.

"Stay in attack formation!" Vader ordered as he led his wingmen to the Rebel ships.

Gold Leader adjusted his scopes as he guided Gold Two and Gold Five down to the Death Star's equatorial trench, en route to the vulnerable exhaust port.

"The exhaust port is marked and locked in!" he announced after a moment.

Three Y-wings swooped down into the high-walled trench.

Gold Five, an older pilot named Davish "Pops" Krail, took the lead position. Gold Leader was Krail's starboard wingman, and Gold Two, a young pilot named Tiree, was his port wingman.

Imperial cannons were along the upper edges of the trench walls, and larger cannons were mounted atop angular towers on the Death Star's surface. The cannons fired green lasers and flak exploded around the three Y-wings.

"Switch all power to front deflector screens," Vander instructed his pilots. "Switch all power to front deflector screens."

Maintaining a high speed, the pilots dipped and shifted to avoid being hit. Gold Leader tried to count off the streaks of laserfire.

"How many guns do you think, Gold Five?" he asked.

"Say about twenty guns," Gold Five answered. "Some on the surface, some on the towers."

The Y-wing pilots' communications were broadcast over the loudspeaker at the Rebel base.

There, Luke hid a cringe when he heard the announcement over the loudspeaker: "Death Star will be in range in five minutes."

The Rebel pilots were also aware of the limited time they had left, but if they were nervous, none of them showed it. Gold Leader's voice remained steady as he said, "Switch to targeting computer."

Inside the cockpit of each Y-wing, the targeting computer scopes automatically adjusted before the pilots so they could monitor their progress to the target site. Laserfire continued to whiz past the three fighters.

"Computer's locked," Gold Two confirmed as his fighter flew through bursts of flak. A beeping sound accompanied a blinking blip on his targeting scope, and he added, "Getting a signal."

Suddenly, the barrage of Imperial laserfire came to an abrupt end.

"The guns…they've stopped!" Gold Two was baffled as he spoke.

Even though the three pilots were still traveling at high speed, the trench seemed eerily calm.

"Stabilize your rear deflectors," Gold Five instructed, glancing out of his window. "Watch for enemy fighters."

Gold Leader saw the three TIE fighters first. "They're coming in! Three marks at two ten."

The three marks were Darth Vader and his two wingmen. With inhuman precision, the Imperial fighters hurtled into the Death Star trench to arrive behind the Y-wings.

As a child, Darth Vader, under a different name, had raced repulsorlift pods through the canyons of Tatooine. Then, he'd experienced not only adrenaline rushes but heightened emotions while flying, and his piloting skills had ultimately led to his liberation from the sand planet.

Now, Podracing was a distant memory, a ridiculous sport for short aliens with quick reflexes. Vader's only interest in flying was if it allowed him the opportunity to exercise supreme power. In that capacity, the Rebel starfighters interested him very much.

"I'll take them myself," Vader said into his com-link. "Cover me."

"Yes, sir," answered an Imperial pilot.

Vader lined up Gold Two in his targeting computer, then pressed the trigger on his fighter's control stick.

Laserfire streaked out from Vader's ship and Gold Two's Y-wing exploded in a blinding flash.

Gold Leader saw the explosion, saw his friend Tiree die in a split second, and began to panic.

"It's no good," he cried desperately into his com-link. "I can't maneuver!"

"Stay on target!" Gold Five ordered, trying to keep Gold Leader calm.

Gold Leader tried to adjust his targeting computer. "We're too close," he said.

"Stay on target!" Gold Five repeated calmly.

"Loosen up!" Gold Leader snapped.

Darth Vader adjusted his own targeting computer. He locked onto Gold Leader's ship, then pressed the control stick's trigger.

The Y-wing exploded, killing Dutch Vander and throwing debris in all directions. Gold Five was close to the target area, but with three TIE fighters on his tail, he knew he wouldn't last much longer if he remained in the trench.

Guiding his Y-wing up and out of the trench, he said, "Gold Five to Red Leader, lost Tiree, lost Dutch."

The Rebel pilots knew their transmissions might be intercepted by Imperial scanners, and didn't want anyone on the Death Star to know that a squadron leader had been shot down. Also, Dutch's death meant an immediate advancement of rank for Pops Krail, who would no longer be called Gold Five.

With these concerns in mind, Leia answered. "I copy, Gold Leader."

"They came from behind—" Pops began to say, but before he could finish, one of his engines exploded.

Vader's TIE fighter had followed Pops out of the trench and fired a devastating blast at the Y-wing. The starfighter blazed out of control, exploded, and Pops was gone.

* * *

In the Death Star control room, Grand Moff Tarkin's aide Chief Bast left a computer console to report to his leader. Tarkin stood before the large viewscreen, watching the Death Star's progress through space, and waiting for the moment that the planet Yavin no longer obscured Yavin 4.

"We've analyzed their attack, sir, and there is a danger," Chief Bast admitted. "Should I have your ship standing by?"

"Evacuate?" Tarkin demanded in outrage. "In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances!"

Tarkin returned his attention to the viewscreen.

* * *

Over the Death Star's intercom, the voice announced, "Rebel base, three minutes and closing."

Thirty Rebel pilots had traveled in their starfighters from Yavin 4 to the Death Star.

Standing in the Rebel base war room, Luke looked at a tactical monitor and saw that only about six X-wings and a single Y-wing remained engaged in the battle.

One of the X-wings was Leia's, but with less than three minutes until the Death Star entered firing range of Yavin 4, it was hard for Luke to remain hopeful for any Rebel's future.

Leia's voice came from over the loudspeaker. "Boys, this is Red Leader. Rendezvous at mark six point one."

"This is Red Two," Wedge answered. "Flying toward you."

"Red Three, standing by," said Garven Dreis. Red Four, Biggs Darklighter, confirmed the order a second later.

The two remaining X-wing pilots carried the comm-unit designations of Red Ten and Red Nine.

Near Luke, General Dodonna examined the tactical screen and said into his comm, "Red Leader, this is Base One. Keep half your group out of range for the next run."

"Copy, Base One," Leia agreed.

"Red Leader, I have a space," Garven reported, alerting his leader to his intentions. Before she could order him to let her go for the run, he, with Reds Nine and Ten as his wingmen, flew down into the trench. Leia swore, a feeling of dread crawling up her spine.

In his cockpit, Garven glanced around to watch for the TIE fighters. Beads of sweat broke out across his forehead but he dismissed the nervous reflex and tightened his grip on his control stick. "This is it!" he said, and threw his X-wing down into the Death Star's trench.

Red Nine and Red Ten followed him.

The Death Star cannons fired at the three X-wings as they raced through the high-walled trench.

As laserfire streaked past them, Red Ten quickly consulted his targeting scope, then tried to sight a cannon tower that would visually indicate the target site.

"We should be able to see it by now." The Imperial cannons ceased firing.

"Keep your eyes open for those fighters!" Red Three snapped.

"There's too much interference!" Red Nine yelled back.

Indeed, the X-wing's sensors had been designed for traveling through space, not for speeding through a space station trench, and it was difficult for Red Ten to identify the blips on his scopes.

"Red Leader, can you see them from where you are?" he asked.

From above the trench, Leia scanned the skies for enemies. "No sign of any—wait!" She saw the three TIE fighters. "Coming in point three five," she warned them.

Red Ten looked. "I see them," he said.

Sunlight flared off the solar arrays of the three TIE fighters as they dived in a tight formation for the trench.

Advancing on the three X-wings, Darth Vader was surprised to feel a twinge of anticipation. He was looking forward to killing more Rebel pilots.

Red Three blocked out thoughts of the incoming enemy fighters and displayed calm as he adjusted his targeting computer.

"I'm in range."

On his targeting scope, the blinking blip indicated he was closing in on the Death Star's thermal exhaust port. "Target's coming up!" he announced. "Just hold them off for a few seconds."

Since the X-wings were without tail guns, all Red Ten and Red Twelve could do was increase power to their rear deflector shields and maneuver to defend Red Leader against a rear attack.

From behind, Darth Vader spoke into his comm. "Close up formation."

His wingmen complied.

Red Three lined up the target in the crosshairs of his scope. "Almost there!" he said.

Darth Vader's targeting computer locked onto Red Twelve's X-wing. Vader pressed his control stick's trigger and his cannons spat green laserfire. The X-wing exploded and crashed against the walls of the trench.

The power of the blast nearly sent Red Ten out of control. Struggling to stay on course behind Red Three, Red Ten said into his comm, "You'd better let her loose."

But Red Three wasn't ready yet. All his attention was concentrated on his targeting scope, waiting for the right moment to fire his X-wing's proton torpedoes.

"They're right behind me," Red Nine warned.

"Almost there!" Red Three insisted.

"I can't hold them!" Red Ten yelled. He looked to his left, trying to find the position of the TIE fighters.

Vader coolly pressed the trigger on his control stick. His well-aimed shot smashed into the X-wing, and Red Ten's cockpit filled with fire and smoke. An instant later, the X-wing exploded.

Red Three grimly watched the target line up in his scope's crosshairs, then he fired. As the two proton torpedoes zoomed down the trench, he yelled, "It's away!"

He pulled up into a rapid climb just before a huge explosion billowed out of the trench. In the Rebel base, everyone held their breath as they waited to hear the pilot's transmissions over the loudspeaker.

"It's a hit!" Red Nine cried.

"Negative," Red Three denied with finality. "Negative! It didn't go in, just impacted on the surface."

The announcement stunned everyone in the Rebel war room. Luke wished General Dodonna would assure him that they still had a chance, but Dodonna didn't say a word.

Leia looked down from his cockpit and spotted Red Three's ship. The TIE fighters had followed Garven out of the trench and were moving up fast behind him.

"Red Three, we're right above you," she said. "Turn to point…oh-five; we'll cover for you."

"Stay there," Garven rebutted. Looking nervously through his cockpit window, he added, "I just lost my starboard engine. Get set up for your attack run."

Darth Vader fired at Red Three's X-wing. The X-wing caught fire and Garven Dreis screamed as his ship plummeted to the Death Star.

Leia watched helplessly as the X-wing crashed and exploded. _'No time to mourn'_ she thought. _'Now it's up to me, Biggs, and Wedge.'_

"Let's go, boys," she ordered curtly. "May the Force be with us."

* * *

Grand Moff Tarkin cast a sinister eye at the Death Star control room's viewscreen. Over the intercom, a voice announced, "Rebel base, one minute and closing."

* * *

In the Rebel base war room, Luke, C-3PO, General Dodonna, and the other Rebels continued listening to the transmissions from the remaining pilots.

"Biggs, Wedge, let's close it up," Leia continued. "We're going in full throttle. That ought to keep those fighters off our back."

"Right with you, boss," Wedge agreed.

"Leader, at that speed, will you be able to pull out in time?" Biggs asked worriedly.

"I got this," she replied. _'I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me'_ she recited a prayer mentally as she headed downward.

Wedge and Biggs followed Leia down into the Death Star's trench. They unleashed a barrage of laserfire at the space station, and the Imperial cannons returned fire.

"We'll stay back far enough to cover you," Biggs said as she raced ahead.

"My scope shows the tower, but I can't see the exhaust port!" Wedge cried. "Are you sure the computer can hit it?"

Leia heard the question but was momentarily distracted by a Death Star cannon that slowly rotated and pumped laserbolts at the X-wings.

"Watch yourself!" she snapped. "Increase speed full throttle!"

"What about that tower?" Wedge asked.

"You worry about those fighters!" Leia replied. "I'll worry about the tower!"

Imperial laserfire nicked one of Leia's wings and she had to struggle with her controls to steady the starfighter's flight. "Artoo," she said into her comm, "that stabilizer's broken loose. See if you can't lock it down!"

As R2 extended his repair arm, the Death Star's cannons ceased firing.

Flying behind Leia's X-wing, Wedge looked up and saw the enemy pilots making their approach.

"Fighters," he announced grimly. "Coming in, point three."

The three TIE fighters swooped into the trench. Leia focused on her targeting scope, which had just marked off the distance to the target. The TIE fighters zoomed closer to the X-wings. Darth Vader fired.

"I'm hit!" Wedge shouted as his ship was blasted from behind. Although his ship was still intact, his deflector shields were lost. Realizing he wouldn't stand a chance against another attack, he said, "I can't stay with you."

"Go!" Leia replied.

"Sorry!" Wedge said as he pulled his crippled X-wing up and out of the trench.

Darth Vader sensed one of his wingmen wanted to pursue the fleeing X-wing. "Let him go!" Vader commanded. "Stay on the leader!"

The TIE fighters maintained their tight formation as they accelerated. Biggs gazed back at the incoming TIE fighters.

"Hurry, Leia," he urged worriedly. "They're coming in much faster this time. We can't hold them!"

Leia glanced back from her cockpit. "Artoo, try and increase the power!"

R2 worked frantically on the engines. Swivelling his dome, he saw the TIE fighters were gaining fast on Biggs' X-wing.

Leia looked into her targeting scope. Over her headset, she heard Biggs insisting she hurry again.

Biggs glanced at the TIE fighters and moved in to cover for her. Vader gained on him.

"Wait!" Biggs shouted.

Vader fired. Leia looked back and saw the X-wing that carried her squad mate suddenly explode into a million flaming bits. The TIE fighters kept coming.

As Leia's eyes watered, her anger grew.

Inside the Death Star, Grand Moff Tarkin felt nothing but satisfaction when the announcement came over the intercom: "Rebel base, thirty seconds and closing."

"I'm on the leader," Darth Vader told his wingmen as he adjusted his targeting computer. The three TIE fighters charged after the lone X-wing that remained in the trench.

At the Rebel base, Luke glanced at C-3PO.

"Hang on, Artoo!" the droid begged his friend.

Leia adjusted the lens on her targeting scope. The exhaust port was still some distance ahead, and the TIE fighters were coming in fast from behind.

Suddenly, her Master's voice echoed in her mind.

" _Use the Force, Leia."_ Leia's eyes darted around the cockpit. _"Let go of your anger and trust It, Leia."_ Suddenly, time seemed to slow down.

Leia felt not as if she were racing through the Death Star's trench at full throttle, but rather that the trench was flowing past and around her. She was aware of the pursuing TIE fighters and the weapon-laden trench walls, but she no longer felt threatened by them. She was in control, and she was not afraid. It was a meditative state she had only achieved once before.

Darth Vader sensed the change that swept over the pilot in the remaining X-wing. "The Force is strong in this one!" he murmured to himself.

Leia looked at her own targeting scope. Then she reached to her control panel and pressed a button. The targeting scope retracted and moved away from her helmet.

Her action was detected by the controllers at the Rebel base. A controller announced, "Her computer's off."

Addressing Leia directly, the controller said, "Leia, you switched off your targeting computer. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she answered in a dreamy tone as she stayed on course for her target. "I'm all right. I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me."

"Kriff, she's snapped," someone muttered. Luke shot him a dark glare before returning his attention to the screen.

' _I don't need the targeting computer'_ Leia thought with a calm confidence. _'All I have to do is get a bit closer to the exhaust port. I can do it! I know I can do it.…'_

Behind Leia, R2-D2 rotated his dome again to look at the incoming TIE fighters. The central TIE fighter fired a burst of laserbolts at the X-wing, and the astromech was engulfed by crackling laserfire.

R2 screeched, then went silent.

"I've lost Artoo!" Leia shouted, feeling a burst of distress break through for s split second before disappearing again.

C-3PO heard her over the war room loudspeaker, and the golden droid looked to Prince Luke. Like the other Rebels, he had his eyes fixed on the tactical monitor.

"The Death Star has cleared the planet," the controller announced. "The Death Star has cleared the planet."

* * *

There was a simultaneous announcement in the Death Star control room: "Rebel base, in range."

Tarkin turned to an officer. "You may fire when ready."

The Imperial officer pressed a button on an illuminated control panel. "Commence primary ignition."

* * *

While the Imperial soldiers readied the Death Star's superlaser, Darth Vader's targeting computer locked onto Leia's X-wing.

"I have you now," Vader murmured. He pressed the trigger on his control stick.

Suddenly, an unexpected blast of laserfire angled down into the trench and struck the TIE fighter that had been traveling alongside Vader's starboard stern.

The TIE fighter exploded.

"What?" Vader exclaimed. He glanced up to locate the unknown attacker.

It was the _Millennium Falcon_.

"Yahoo!" Han hollered as he descended rapidly from above, guiding the Falcon on what looked like a collision course for the two TIE fighters.

Intending to warn Darth Vader, the startled surviving Imperial wingman cried, "Look out!"

But the sight of the oncoming Corellian freighter caused the wingman to panic, and he veered radically to one side and smashed against Vader's TIE fighter.

The impact sent Vader's fighter spinning up and out of the trench, while the wingman's fighter crashed into the wall and exploded.

Vader fought to regain control of his fighter but it continued to tumble across space, leaving the Death Star behind.

The _Falcon_ pulled out of its steep dive and Han spoke into his comm. "You're all clear, Sunshine. Now let's blow this thing up and go home!"

Leia looked up and smiled, then concentrated on the exhaust port.

' _I can sense the target'_ she thought to herself. _'It's right in front of me. I can't miss. I am a vessel for the Force to enact Its' will through.'_

She fired the proton torpedoes. The twin high-speed concussion projectiles streaked away from her X-wing, carrying their payload of highyield proton-scattering warheads. Both torpedoes plunged down into the thermal exhaust port, and Leia, traveling at an almost sickening speed, pulled up and out of the trench and accelerated to catch up with the _Millennium Falcon_ , Wedge's X-wing, and a single Y-wing, which were already speeding away from the Death Star.

* * *

Inside the space station, the superlaser was finally ready to be fired. Grand Moff Tarkin's eyes remained fixed on the viewscreen as an Imperial controller instructed everyone to, "Stand by."

* * *

The three Rebel starfighters and the _Falcon_ were barely out of the danger zone when the Death Star exploded in an immense, blinding flash.

From a distance, the blast resembled a small supernova.

"Great shot, Sunshine," Han said into his comm. "That was one in a million."

Leia let out a deep breath and relaxed. Then she heard her Master's voice speak again. _"Remember, the Force will be with you…always."_

Leia smiled all the way back to Yavin 4.


	14. Epilogue

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.**

 **Epilogue**

Darth Vader fought for control of his TIE fighter as he flew away from the Death Star. But his movements were automatic, his thoughts distant. Images were flashing across his vision. He saw Mustafar, seventeen years ago. Obi-Wan was running to Padmé's ship, cradling the unconscious woman to his chest.

Padmé was lying on an operating table, screaming in pain with tears coarsing down her cheeks. A med-droid handed a small, failing body to Obi-Wan who announced "It's a girl!" "Leia," Padmé wept, a pain-filled smile on her face as she craned her head to see.

Obi-Wan standing in a Nubian bedroom, with people Vader thought seemed vaguely familiar. "I must ask that you claim her as your own," the Jedi was saying.

The vision zeroed in on the face of the baby, and he watched her grow from an infant to a young woman dressed in a dark tunic and pants, with a lightsabre hilt in hand. A name echoed in his mind: Leia Naberrie. His daughter.

* * *

After landing in the main hangar at the Rebel base on Yavin 4, Leia climbed out of her battered X-wing to be greeted by a throng of cheering Rebels. As she descended the ladder beside her ship, she searched the crowd for one face in particular, and then she saw him.

"Leia!" Luke shouted as he rushed to her. She threw her arms around his neck and they danced around in a circle.

As Leia spun, she saw C-3PO make his way through the crowd to stand beside the X-wing, then saw Han and Chewbacca come running toward them.

"Han!" she cried joyfully. As soon as he was in reach, she jumped in his arms and pressed her lips to his, feeling one of his arms pull her closer while the other supported her head. The surrounding Rebels let out various whoops and wolf-whistles at the action.

"I knew you'd come back!" Leia declared, a bright smile lighting up her face. "I just knew it!"

Han shrugged, giving her a roguish grin. "Well, that kiss sure as hell beat any money I could get from smuggling."

A maintenance crew had removed R2-D2 from the X-wing and lowered him down to the hangar floor.

"Oh, no!" Leia gasped at the sight.

"Oh, my!" C-3PO cried. "Artoo! Can you hear me? Say something!" When no reply came from R2-D2, C-3PO looked to the maintenance crew imploringly. "You can repair him, can't you?" He begged.

"We'll get to work on him right away," one technician told him assuringly.

"You must repair him!" 3PO insisted. Turning to Leia, he added, "Madam, if any of my circuits or gears will help, I'll gladly donate them."

"He'll be all right," Leia said with great assurance. She was filled with a relieved sense of glee at what had just happened, despite her grief. She had just done what dozens of Rebels had sacrificed themselves for. She had blown up the Death Star.

* * *

The next day, trumpets sounded over the Massassi temple. In the expansive ruins of the temple's high-ceilinged main throne room, hundreds of uniformed Rebel troops stood at attention and faced a long aisle. The aisle extended to the far end of the chamber and ended at steps that led up to an elevated level, upon which stood the various Alliance leaders, including Luke.

Leia, Han, and Chewbacca entered the throne room. Leia wore Nubian clothes, a spliced purple tunic with flared-out sleeves and lilac stitching on the chest along with a pair of dark purple leggings. Her hair had a thin braid on either side of her head, going into a cascade of curls that spilled down her back.

Han wore his own clothes, including a clean shirt he'd been saving for a special occasion.

Chewbacca wore his bandolier. The Wookiee followed the two humans up the aisle, passing the silent troops as they marched solemnly toward the prince. When the trio arrived at the steps, Chewbacca glanced aside and barked at the troops.

As if in response, the troops turned simultaneously on their heels to face the Rebel leaders. Leia and Han ascended the steps and stopped just below Luke.

Chewbacca was uncomfortable with the situation and remained on a lower step behind Han.

Prince Luke wore a formal Alderaanian suit. He looked to Han and Leia. Leia was unable to maintain a serious expression and broke out in a big smile. Luke smiled back at the girl who had quickly become his best friend.

General Dodonna handed a gold medallion to him.

Han bowed as Luke placed the medallion around his neck. As he rose, Han winked at Leia who beamed back him broadly.

Leia glanced over to C-3PO, who stood beside the Rebel leaders. The protocol droid was gleaming from head to toe, and appeared very proud. She nodded to acknowledge him, then returned her attention to Luke and the ceremony. Luke had just finished giving Chewie his medal and was now holding out Leia's one.

She lowered her head, and Luke placed a medallion around her neck too. Then the three of them bowed to Luke respectfully, and a happy beeping sound came from beside C-3PO.

It was R2-D2. The astromech had been completely refurbished, and looked better than he had when he'd been brand-new. R2-D2 wobbled back and forth with excitement, causing all to grin.

Leia, Han, and Chewbacca turned to face the assembled troops, and the ancient temple was suddenly filled with loud cheers and applause. Chewbacca surveyed the crowd and growled.

Even though friends had been lost, and the battle against the Empire was far from over, the fact remained that a small band of heroes had destroyed the Death Star against impossible odds. For that, the Rebels found cause to celebrate. And they did.


	15. Sequel!

Sequel, Attack of the Empire, is now up.


End file.
